Organic Division Horizon Prizes

Guidelines for nominators

• Nominations open 12 November
• Nominations close 18 January, 17:00 GMT
• Only RSC Members can nominate for these prizes
• Self-nomination is permitted and encouraged
• These prizes are open to nominees based in the UK or internationally
• These prizes are open to teams, collaborations, and in exceptional circumstances, individuals e.g. a nomination supported by single author publication(s)
• At least one team/collaboration member must be an RSC member; the RSC member is expected to have made a significant contribution to the discovery or advance.
• Nominated teams must not include anyone named in one of these roles during the nomination or judging period:
  • Organic Division Award Committee members
  • Division Presidents
  • Awards Working Group members
  • Trustees of the Royal Society of Chemistry

To make a nomination, please use our online nominations system to submit the following information:

• Your name, contact details, and membership number (please contact the RSC Membership team if you do not know your membership details)
• Details of a primary contact for the team
• A list of all individuals who contributed to the discovery or advance including, but not limited to, all named authors or inventors listed on outputs. The primary contact for the team will be asked to confirm the list and if necessary add additional team members at the point of nomination, e.g. technical staff and researchers not named on outputs
• Full details of up to three outputs e.g. journal article, a granted patent, a protocol, a piece of software or research tool. The outputs should typically be from the last five years, measured by e.g. publication date, patent acceptance date, release date
• A short citation describing what the nominee(s) should be awarded for. This must be no longer than 250 characters (including spaces) and no longer than one sentence
• A supporting statement, written for a general scientific audience, addressing the selection criteria below:
  • Quality of discovery/advance: A summary/description of the discovery/advance (300 words)
  • Originality: Description of the originality of the work (150 words)
  • Significance to the field: Summary of the significance of the discovery/advance to the field, and why it should be recognised (300 words)

The RSC reserves the right to rescind any prize if there are reasonable grounds to do so. All nominators will be asked to confirm that, to the best of their knowledge, their nominee's professional standing is such that there is no confirmed or potential impediment to them receiving this prize. All winners will be asked to sign the RSC's Code of Conduct Declaration for Recognition. 

Selection Criteria and Judging Panel

Our selection committees base their evaluations primarily on the overall quality of relevant contributions made by nominees and not on quantitative measures. The scientific content of any supporting publications, as described in the supporting statement, is much more important than publication metrics or the identity of the journal in which it is published.

The selection committee will consider the following aspects of nominations for this prize:

• Quality of discovery/advance
• Originality
• Significance to the field

Organic Division Awards Committee

• Stuart Conway, University of Oxford (Chair)
• Sarah Skerratt, MSD
• Martin Swarbrick, CRUK Therapeutic Discovery Laboratories
• Alethea Tabor, University College London
• Mariola Tortosa, Universidad Autonoma de Madrid
• Vipul Patel, GSK

History of the prize

These prizes were created in 2020, as part of a series of changes introduced following an independent review of the Royal Society of Chemistry's recognition programmes. 

These prizes belong to our new family of Horizon Prizes, which highlight the most exciting, contemporary chemical science at the cutting edge of research and innovation. These prizes are for teams or collaborations who are opening up new directions and possibilities in their field, through ground-breaking scientific developments.

These prizes evolved from our Bioorganic Chemistry Award, Perkin Prize in Organic Chemistry, Robert Robinson Award and Synthetic Organic Chemistry Award respectively. Click through for more information on the history of these awards and lists of previous winners.