Equality, Diversity and Inclusion Prize

We As We part of its commitment to nurturing an inclusive and welcoming culture within the microbiology community, the Society launched the Equality, Diversity and Inclusion Prize in November 2023 with plans to hold its inaugural award lecture in 2025. 

The recipient of the Prize Lecture will receive £1,000 and deliver a lecture about the work for which they won the award at the Society’s Annual Conference. Prize Lecture winners are strongly encouraged to contribute an article based on their work to one of the Society’s publications.

Nominations for the 2026 Prize will open in early 2025. Details of the nomination process, award criteria and administration can be found below.

Microbiology-Society-EDI-Prize-Nomination-Form-2024.doc

 

Key details

Nominations for the Prize are welcome from any member of the Microbiology Society, regardless of membership period or category. Nominees do not have to be a member of the Society. 

Successful nominees and awardees will be notified by the end of November.

Details of the nomination process, award criteria and administration are available below.

Nominations process

We welcome nominations of individuals or teams who have made an outstanding contribution to initiatives that:

  • Promote equality, diversity and inclusion in the microbiological community.
  • Widen participation by those from historically marginalised communities by raising awareness of microbiology and inspiring the next generation of microbiologists to pursue microbiology careers.

After nominations are received, the General Secretary of the Society will convene a Prize Award Panel drawn from the wider membership who will be responsible for assessing the nominations and presenting a recommendation to Council regarding the winner. The successful candidate will be invited to accept, and the winner will be formally announced in Autumn.

If your nomination is unsuccessful, we will automatically reconsider it for a further two consecutive years. If the nomination remains unsuccessful following those two years, it will be withdrawn, and a new nomination for the same candidate may only be submitted following a one-year break. This stopgap is in place to protect nominees who may wish to withdraw from the process.

Award criteria

The Society’s Equality, Diversity and Inclusion Prize recognises those who have demonstrated good practice in and/or made outstanding contributions to initiatives that:

  • Promote equality, diversity and inclusion in the microbiological community.
  • Widen participation by those from historically marginalised communities by raising awareness of microbiology and inspiring the next generation of microbiologists to pursue microbiology careers.

Criteria for consideration of nominations include:

  • Innovation, originality and quality of the activity.
  • Long term champion of equality, diversity and inclusion, acting as a role model
  • Evidence of evaluation of the initiative in
    • achieving its aims
    • reach into/engagement of desired audience from historically marginalised communities
    • impact over time

Eligibility

  • Nominations must be made by members of the Microbiology Society, but the nominee does not have to be a member.
  • Nominees may be at any stage of their career and may be working in academia, infection science, industry or other backgrounds.
  • Nominations could be activities or projects organised and delivered by an individual or a team, or a longer-term role model that either promotes equality, diversity and inclusion in the microbiological community or widens participation by those from historically marginalised communities.
  • Nominations must be made on the appropriate form which will be available on this page while nominations are open.

Additional information

All supplementary material required by the rules of the award must be provided at the point of nomination. If you foresee any problems meeting the advertised deadline, please contact [email protected].

We welcome nominations from groups of members. Please contact [email protected] if you would like to be put in touch with someone to help.

The Microbiology Society supports equality, diversity and inclusion (EDI), and asks that members making nominations consider the entire talent pool available. You can find out more about our policy and see our most recent data on the EDI page.

For questions about the Equality, Diversity and Inclusion Prize, please contact [email protected].