Organic Division mid-career award: Merck, Sharp & Dohme Award

Guidelines for nominators

• Nominations open 12 November
  
• Nominations close 18 January, 17:00 GMT
• Only RSC members can nominate for this prize.
• Nominees may NOT nominate themselves.
• Nominees can only be considered for one of our Research & Innovation Prizes in any given year. In a case where a nominee is nominated for more than one prize independently, RSC staff will ask the nominee which prize they would like to be considered for.
• Individuals named in any of the following roles during the nomination and judging period are not eligible to nominate or be nominated:
  
  • Organic Division Award Committee members
  • Division Presidents
  • Awards Working Group members
  • Trustees of the Royal Society of Chemistry

• The prize is open to nominees based in the UK and Ireland only.
• Nominees should be a mid-career scientist, typically with no more than 20 years of full-time equivalent professional experience. 
• This should be experience gained as part of a scientific career excluding time spent in full-time education. Time spent as a postgraduate student should not be included e.g. Masters, PhD. Time spent as a post-doctoral researcher should be included. 
• Nominators will be asked to provide details of the nominee's professional experience, in relation to the above criteria.   
• Career breaks will be recognised, and applications are particularly encouraged from those whose career has spanned a break due to caring responsibilities or personal circumstances e.g. a period of parental/adoption leave, family commitments, illness, or other exceptional circumstances. 
• When nominating previous RSC prize or award winners, please remember that a person cannot be awarded twice for substantially the same body of work.     

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)
• Your nominee's name and contact details
• An up to date CV for the nominee (no longer than one A4 side, 11pt text) which should include a summary of their education and career, and a maximum of 5 relevant publications or patents
• A short citation describing what the nominee should be awarded for. This must be no longer than 250 characters (including spaces) and no longer than one sentence
• A supporting statement (up to 750 words) addressing the selection criteria
• A statement (up to 100 words) describing how your nominee has contributed more broadly to the scientific community. A list of possible examples is outlined in the ‘selection criteria’ tab.
• References are not required for this award and will not be accepted.   

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:

• Originality of research
• Impact of research
• Quality of publications and/or patents and/or software
• Innovation
• Professional standing
• Collaborations and teamwork
• Other indicators of esteem indicated by the nominator    

In an instance where multiple nominees are judged equally meritorious in relation to the above criteria, judging panels have the flexibility to use information provided by the nominator on the nominee’s broader contribution to the chemistry community as an additional criterion.

Examples of relevant contributions could include, but are not limited to:

• Involvement with Royal Society of Chemistry member groups/networks
• Teaching/demonstrating
• Effective mentorship
• Service on boards, committees or panels
• Leadership in the scientific community
• Peer-reviewer
• Promotion of diversity and inclusion
• Advocacy for chemistry
• Public engagement and outreach

Organic Division Awards Committee

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

History of the prize

Originally the Rhône-Poulenc Lectureship, this prize was founded in 1984 following a bequest to mark the sesquicentenary of what was then May & Baker Ltd. The Lectureship was awarded for notable contributions to organic chemistry.

The prize was renamed as the Merck, Sharp & Dohme Award in 2017, and continues to be kindly supported by MSD.