NCRM 20th Anniversary Impact Prize

To celebrate our 20th anniversary in 2024, NCRM is inviting researchers to apply for the NCRM 20th Anniversary Impact Prize. The competition is open to anyone who has participated in NCRM training, used our resources, taken part in one of our initiatives, events or networks, or been in receipt of NCRM funding, since we were founded in 2004.

Details on how to apply are available below. The information on this page can also be downloaded as a PDF.

Summary

The aim of the competition is to recognise, celebrate and showcase the short- and longer-term impacts of researchers who have been involved with NCRM at any point in the last 20 years. We are offering a first prize of up to £2,000, with a further £2,500 to be shared between (up to) five finalists.

The winner and finalists will be announced on our website and social media channels, and the overall winner will be invited to a formal prize giving event at MethodsCon in Manchester on 13 September 2024 (we will pay for travel and one night’s accommodation, and attendance at MethodsCon for the day). We will also run a feature on the winner and the finalists in our monthly newsletter and on our website.

To enter, we would like you to tell us about the impact of your involvement with NCRM. By impact, we mean the marked or strong, positive effect that NCRM’s research methods training, activities, resources or support have had on your knowledge and skills, your use of research methods, and your application of these skills and methods in your work and research. We are particularly interested in finding out about who has benefited from your involvement with NCRM and how they have benefited.

Who can apply

Applicants must demonstrate a relationship between their experience with NCRM and the impacts that have been generated (see guidelines and the application form for the type of impacts that we are looking for).

We encourage applications from people working in all sectors, including the academic, public, healthcare, government, voluntary/community and private sectors, and from people who are no longer in employment. You can apply as an individual or as a group/team. Applicants can be based in the UK, or overseas, and can be at any stage of their career or education.

If you submitted an unsuccessful NCRM Impact Prize application in 2023, you may only re submit your application if your impact achievements have substantially changed since the previous application (or you have realised that you did not fully describe the impacts you achieved). A new form with updated information must be submitted.

Winners and finalists from the 2023 competition may submit new applications, provided these are substantially different from the previous successful application. New applications should describe entirely new impacts or focus on a different NCRM activity from that highlighted previously.

Please note, this prize is not open to NCRM staff, people working in NCRM centre partner roles or members of our independent advisory board.

Free online workshops on impact

For those new to thinking about impact, we recognise that it may feel quite difficult to demonstrate and evidence the impact generated through your involvement with NCRM.

If you would like to learn more about impact, prior to submitting your application, we are running two free interactive workshops on Wednesday, 17 April 2024 with Professor Mark Reed, a leading expert on impact. The morning workshop (10:00-12:00) is aimed at early career researchers, and the afternoon workshop (14:00-16:00) at more established researchers.

Apply for a place on a workshop

If you cannot attend either of these, then Professor Reed’s presentation, How to Evidence the Impact of Your Research, may help with thinking about evidencing research impact – but please do not forget that you need to tie this into your involvement with NCRM).

How to apply for the prize

To apply, applicants should complete and submit an application form, which can be downloaded from the NCRM website. The deadline for applicants is: Sunday, 2 June 2024 (24:00 BST). Download the application form

Please submit your application form to: impact@ncrm.ac.uk

Submissions will be reviewed after this date by a panel assembled by NCRM. Guidelines on how to complete the form are available from the NCRM website. Download the guidelines

The winner and finalists will be informed by the end of July 2024 at the latest, and a public announcement will be made on the NCRM website and social media channels shortly after.

View examples of successful applications for the 2023 NCRM Impact Prize (please note that the layout of the application form has changed since 2023).

Rules

Applicants must give permission for NCRM to use the text from their application on our website or in other subsequent NCRM publications or publicity materials.

Key dates

Applications open: Monday, 11 March 2024

Impact workshops: Wednesday, 17 April 2024 (not compulsory)

Applications close: Sunday, 2 June 2024 (24:00 BST)

Finalists informed: no later than end of July 2024

Formal prize-giving for winner: Friday, 13 September 2024, at MethodsCon in Manchester

Further information

If you have any queries, please email us on: impact@ncrm.ac.uk