New Reshaping Recognition report reveals impacts of five-year transformation of RSC's prizes portfolio
The Royal Society of Chemistry has published a new report reflecting on how its prizes have been reshaped to better serve the scientific community.
Reshaping Recognition is a new report exploring the actions the RSC has taken to transform its prizes in recent years.
Changes first introduced in 2020 have expanded the types of excellence we recognise. As a result, we have seen a greater range of people, teams and achievements celebrated.
As well as celebrating established individual researchers, the prizes now shine more light on educators, apprentices, technicians, early-career scientists, and those working in industry.
At the same time, teams and collaborations have moved firmly into the spotlight, reflecting the way modern science is done.
Since the changes began, the number of people recognised has risen almost sixfold – one of several striking shifts highlighted in the report. Our prize winners now represent a wider mix of career stages, sectors, disciplines and roles.
Team prizes, once a rarity, are now commonplace – recognising collaborations across universities, companies and countries. Furthermore, more than a third of recent winners are at an early stage in their careers, a dramatic change from just a handful previously.
Over the past five years, we’ve taken action to implement the recommendations from that review and evolve our prizes. The report highlights the outcomes we have seen from evolving our prizes. As a result of these changes, I believe our prizes now better reflect the different types of excellence in the chemical sciences and all those that contribute to it.
RSC Chief Executive Dr Helen Pain
Winners' views
Our report also contains feedback from dozens of prize winners who have gave us their views on how RSC recognition has affected them.
Professor Michelle Chang, of Princeton University, was honoured with our Centenary Prize for Chemistry and Communication in 2022. She noted that winning the award has had tangible, long-term benefits for her career.
She said: “The way the Centenary Prize is arranged with the lecture tour definitely made me engage with it more, and I really enjoyed it. I met a lot of people and made some connections that might lead to future collaborations, so I am excited about that!”
Dr Muralidharan Shanmugam and Adam Brookfield, of the EPSRC UK National Research Facility team honoured with the 2025 Technical Excellence Prize, noted that they appreciated the fact that technical professionals are now getting greater recognition.
They said: “The RSC Technical Excellence Prize is brilliant recognition of our years of work together. It’s great to see technical staff at other facilities recognised too – we represent just one of the suite of tools and techniques needed to answer the scientific challenges of the day. We are honoured that our dedication has been recognised.”
Meanwhile, the Cumbernauld Academy STEM Club that won the 2023 Team Prize for Excellence in Secondary & Further Education added: "Teamwork has been key to our success, and it is really all about the young people's engagement in STEM. The recognition the prize gives to the young people involved and to the wider school is humbling. The fact the RSC recognises the importance of inclusion in science with this award is significant.”
Explore further
Packed with data, quotes and insights, the report documents the actions taken by our Prizes team and the resulting outcomes of this transformation. We also shared five key learnings for other organisations and invited others to reflect on their own approaches to recognition.
Work will continue to ensure our prizes continue to inspire, celebrate, and drive change in how scientific achievement is recognised. We’re extremely proud of what we’ve achieved and are celebrating these outcomes with our community, whose contributions have made this transformation possible.