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Impact Award

Introduced in 2019 and first awarded in 2020, the CoSeC Impact Award recognises the research of  Masters, PhD students, or early career researchers with up to 5 years post-doctoral experience, who have been supported by CoSeC, while at the same time raising awareness of the CoSeC communities. It is also a means of acquiring evidence of the impact of CoSeC and the communities it supports on science, society and the economy. It is bestowed on a yearly basis and the applications are opened in May.

You can read more about the 2024 award winner here and previous winners here. 

​Eligibility 

You need to be a Master’s or PhD student, or early career researcher in academia, industry or other with up to 5 years post-doctoral experience, as of the date outlined in our yearly announcement. 

Criteria 

Have you received any support from CoSeC, such as 

  • user support? 
  • attended a training session/workshop organised by CoSeC? 
  • benefitted from 1-to1 training with CoSeC staff?         
  • used a CoSeC Code? 

Could you showcase how any of the above (or other CoSeC support) has helped you in your work?    

To Apply 

The candidate will need to complete an application form, bearing in mind the Higher Education Funding Council for England (HEFCE) definition for the Research Excellence Framework (REF), where impact is the “effect on, change or benefit to the economy, society, culture, public policy or services, health, the environment or quality of life in the UK or internationally”. 

This means, for example, impact in: 

Science: – the contribution that excellent research makes to academic advances, across and within disciplines, including significant advances in understanding, methods, theory, application and academic practice. 

The candidate will need to ensure that the application includes details about the science that led to the impact, not just the impact itself. 

The winner will be selected by an independent panel. 

Award  

The winner will receive travel bursaries for both our annual conference and community forum, together with being awarded the CoSeC Impact Fellowship with a value of up to £3000.  

In addition to adding “CoSeC Impact Award Winner 2025/CoSeC Impact Fellow” to your CV, the winner can also choose one, all, or a selection of the following…. 

  • The opportunity to spend time with CoSeC staff, either learning a specific skill or finding out more about the work of a CoSeC scientist 
  • Be our guest at STFC and present a seminar of your work virtually, or potentially in-person at Daresbury Laboratory or Rutherford Appleton Laboratory 
  • A laser cut glass award engraved with the winner’s name and ‘CoSeC Impact Award Winner (Year)’ 

The winner’s research will be turned into an impact case study by our Research Community Manager and then featured on the CoSeC website and in our Annual Review. 

Terms and conditions    

All applicants agree to any information they provide being used in publicity materials and to be available to provide a presentation on their impact at either the CoSeC Annual Conference in December of the same year or one of the two CoSeC Community Forums held in the year. 

Further Information: 

Any questions, please contact: CoSeC@stfc.ac.uk