1. Nomination for the Barrer Award 2026

The Barrer Award is to recognise meritorious recent pure or applied work in the field of porous materials.

Run triennially, this year's nominations open 21st October 2025 and close 14th January 2026.

  • The winner receives £500 and a certificate.
  • The winner will be chosen by representatives from the RSC Porous Materials Group, the British Zeolite Association (BZA) and the Society of Chemical Industry (SCI).

Please complete the below nomination form by 14th January 2026

 

Guidelines for nominators

  • Only RSC members can nominate for this prize.
  • Nominees may NOT nominate themselves.
  • This award is open to nominees based in the UK and Ireland
  • This is an early career award

Nominator details

Please confirm your details below. We will use these details to contact you in case there are any problems, and to let you know the outcome of your nomination. The identity of nominators is not made known to our judging panels.

When you have entered your details, click "Mark as Complete" to proceed with your nomination.

Nominator name and title *

 

Email address *

 

Place of work *

 

Country *

 

Phone number

 

Your RSC membership details

This prize requires the nominator to be a member of the Royal Society of Chemistry. Your RSC membership must be confirmed at the point of nomination. It is not sufficient to have a membership application in process.

These details will be checked upon submission by RSC staff; your nomination will not go forward to judging if your RSC membership is not confirmed.

If you do not know your membership number, or if you have any other membership queries, please contact our Membership team: +44 (0)1223 432141.

If you would like to become a member, please visit our membership application page.

Please enter your 6-digit Royal Society of Chemistry membership number. *

 

Your nomination
In this section we will ask you to provide the following information:

  • Details of who you are nominating
  • Your suggested citation
  • Your supporting statement

All fields marked with an asterisk (*) are mandatory

Nominee details

Nominee name and title *

 

Institution/organisation/place of work *

 

Email address *

 

Phone number *

 

Website

 

Which country is your nominee based in? *

 

Career stage information

Nominees for this prize should be an early career scientist.

After fully taking account of any time away from research, career breaks or interruptions, nominees will typically have no more than 10 years of full-time equivalent professional experience at the closing date for nominations. We define this as experience gained as part of a career working in scientific research, excluding time spent in full-time education. For example, experience studying as a postgraduate (PhD) student is not included, but this does include experience working as e.g. a post-doctoral researcher, or working in research in industry.

We particularly encourage nominations of disabled people, those who work part-time, or whose career has spanned a break for any reason – for example, a period of parental or adoption leave, caring responsibilities, long-term illness, family commitments, or other circumstances. We understand that these can impact a nominee’s career in different ways, and encourage nominators to use the space provided on the nomination form to explain the nature and impact of the nominees’ individual circumstances (see below).

Date (month and year) of the start of your nominee’s career in scientific research. Please do not include any
time spent in full-time education/studying for a PhD. *

*
*
 

Details (dates and time periods) of any part-time work, time away from research, career breaks or interruptions – for example, parental/adoption leave, caring responsibilities, long-term illness, family commitments, etc.

If this does not apply to your nominee, please write n/a. *

 

Details of any other circumstances not captured above – for example, long-term conditions, disabilities, etc. – that you would like the committee to be aware of and consider.

If this does not apply to your nominee, please write n/a. *

 

Citation

This will be used as a guide for what you think your nominee should win their prize for. For example, "For the development of transformative new nanocarbon chemistry and applications that can be applied at a practical scale".

Please provide a short citation for your nomination. 
This must be no longer than 250 characters (including spaces) and no longer than one sentence. *

 

Supporting statement

In writing your supporting statement, please bear in mind the following:

  • It is important to address the selection criteria. For the Barrer Award, the selection committee will consider the following aspects of nominations:
    1. Originality of research
    2. Impact of research
    3. Quality of publications and/or patents and/or software
    4. Innovation
    5. Professional standing
    6. Independence
    7. Collaborations and teamwork
    8. Other indicators of esteem indicated by the nominator
  • The judging panel will be composed of experts from a range of different fields.
  • The judging panel will base their decision solely on the evidence presented on the nomination form.

You may wish to read our published guidance for nominators. 

Please insert your statement supporting this nomination (maximum 750 words). *

 

Contributions to the scientific community

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

The purpose of this section is to capture additional contributions by nominees, beyond their science, which have a focus on giving something back to the community. Please don’t repeat your nominee’s research contributions. We understand and expect that nominees’ contributions will vary depending on their career stage. Below is a list of examples that you might choose to write about, but there are many other relevant contributions that you could include.

  • 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

Please describe how your nominee has contributed more broadly to the scientific community (maximum 100 words). *

 

Upload your nominee's CV

This should include a summary of the nominee's education and career, and details of a maximum of 5 relevant publications or patents. The CV should be no longer than one A4 page (11pt text). If the uploaded document is more than one A4 page in length, only the first page will be provided to the judging panel.

Please upload a CV for your nominee.

File types supported:

  • PDF (preferred)
  • .doc or .docx

*

Choose File
 

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    explains how we do this.

For more information, or if you have any difficulties opening the links above, please email awards@rsc.org. *

 



Data protection disclaimer:
The information provided above will be shared with members of the RSC Porous Materials Group committee for assessment. The committee will contact you regarding your application. None of the data you provide here will be used for marketing purposes. Personal data processed in SmartSurvey will be deleted two weeks after the closing date.

If you have any questions about the process please contact the RSC Networks team at NETWORKS@rsc.org. For more information about how we handle your data, please see the Royal Society of Chemistry privacy statement at rsc.li/privacy.

        

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