US Regional Awards: Nomination Materials & Instructions

Nomination Materials

The nomination package for the Blavatnik Regional Awards contains the following documents:

1. Nomination Form
2. Rationale for Nomination
3. Curriculum Vitae
4. Research Summary
5. Professional Service and Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion Statement
6. Full-text Publications and/or Patents
7. Letters of Support

Full details and requirements for all nomination materials are provided below.

All nomination materials should focus on the nominee’s postdoctoral work, but some of the nomination materials may also reference work done during the nominee’s doctoral thesis—see details below. A nominee’s “postdoctoral work” encompasses any research or work performed after the awarding of a doctoral degree and prior to the start of an independent position, such as a Principal Investigator.  For further guidance, please contact us at blavatnikregionalawards@nyas.org.

Nomination Form

Required information includes the nominee’s name, title, contact information, and disciplinary category, as well as the nominator’s name, title, and contact information.

Rationale for Nomination

A statement from the institutional nominator that explains why the nominee has been selected by the institution. This should detail the nominee’s strong record of significant scientific contributions and their promise of sustained or accelerated progress in the future. Max. 200 words. 

Approval of Age Limit Exception

For nominees born prior to 1983, the nominator will be required to upload the official notification letter from the New York Academy of Sciences confirming approval of the age limit exception.

Curriculum Vitae 

It is strongly encouraged that nominees follow the format shown in this example CV to ensure that all required information is included.

There is no page limit for the CV, but we appreciate using as few pages as possible to encompass the required information.

The following information must be included in the nominee’s CV:

• Name, current institution(s), and position title
• Education and training, including doctoral and postdoctoral training and/or residency.  NOTE: Please include names of previous advisors.
• Employment history.
• Honors and awards, including granting organization and years in which they were received.
• All peer-reviewed publications from entire research career: Please include published work or manuscripts in press authored during postdoctoral, doctoral, and undergraduate career
  • DO NOT include manuscripts that are submitted or in preparation.
  • Conference abstracts and proceedings should only be included if they are the primary way of disseminating new results in the nominee’s field, such as in computer science and mathematics.
  • Select patents and patent applications: Include the patent title, a 1 to 2 sentence synopsis, and the year submitted / approved.
• Research grants:
  • List funding, if any, for ongoing and completed projects on which the nominee is a PI or a co-PI.
  • Include name of funding mechanism, funder, and amount.
  • For grants on which the nominee is a co-PI, include total amount of grant as well as amount awarded to nominee.
• Scientific Leadership: include any significant roles in the greater academic community. This includes major editorial responsibilities, service on external committees, conference organization, technology licensing (or company start-up), public outreach activities, and institutional administrative responsibilities (e.g. departmental or student committee). Please list these in the CV, and elaborate on them in the Professional Service and Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion Statement.
• Invited talks and lectures, listing notable invited talks, including the year the talk was given and the inviting organization/institution.

Research Summary

The research summary should:

• Be written in the first person by the nominee;
• Describe up to five of the nominee’s most significant scientific contributions and research accomplishments from their postdoctoral career; doctoral work should be mentioned only if highly notable or relevant to the nominee’s accomplishments as a postdoctoral researcher.
• Include key results, their impact on the nominee’s field of study, and the nominee’s specific role in the described work (especially where the nominee is involved in large collaborations);
• Be written to be accessible to another scientist working in their overarching disciplinary category (e.g. Life Sciences) but not in their specific field of study (e.g. Neuroscience);
• Exclude information about the nominee’s positions, awards, and service activities, or other information contained in the CV.
• Include a brief description of how the nominee sees the current project progressing in the future.
• What are the next steps for the project, and how will the key discoveries made during their postdoctoral career propel their research field forward? (NOTE: A statement of the nominee’s future career plans is not required.)

One figure illustrating the nominee’s most significant results is allowed. Citations and figure caption do not count toward the word limit. Max. 1,000 words.

Professional Service and Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion Statement

The nominee is required to submit an open-ended statement (maximum of one page) describing their outreach activities and/or professional service.  Where possible, the nominee should focus on activities and service related to increasing diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) in the scientific community. Topics to discuss include, but are not limited to, the following:

• Teaching and Mentoring: Commitment to teaching and mentoring students, especially to utilizing practices that address the needs of students of demographics and/or social backgrounds historically underrepresented in science and engineering;
• Collaboration and Leadership: Involvement or leadership in committees, task force groups, professional societies, and organizations;
• Service, Engagement, and/or Outreach: A record of community engagement or outreach activities (e.g. volunteer activities, communicating science to the public, etc.);
• Research: Current and/or planned research relevant to underserved populations or inequalities, or issues relevant to DEI, such as race, gender, sexuality, health disparities, human rights, educational access, ability, etc.

Key Publications and Patents 

Full-text published papers or filed patents representing the nominee’s best work (four publications maximum). Each publication should not be larger than 10MB. Work published by the nominee during graduate training will not be considered in this part of the nomination materials. Papers must be reviewed and published or in press—submitted manuscripts will not be considered.

Letters of Support

Letters of support should:

• Be a maximum of two pages, single-spaced, and uploaded as PDF files.
• Indicate how the letter writer has become acquainted with the nominee and their work / research.
• Describe the nominee’s most significant research contributions and explain their importance for the nominee’s research area. If applicable, describe the nominee’s role in any large collaborations.
• Assess the nominee’s accomplishments in comparison with those of his or her peers at the same career stage.  
• Focus on the nominee’s scientific accomplishments during his/her postdoctoral career and omit the details of their graduate work or information typically included in the CV, such as positions and awards.
• Address the independence of the nominee in conducting their research: where possible, Letters of Support should detail how significant a nominee’s research has been within their advisor's research lab and for the scientific field.

We recommend that nominees petition Letters of Support from individuals who are experts in the nominee’s discipline, field, or sub-field and who are intimately familiar with the nominee’s most significant and important research contributions during their postdoctoral career.

Further, we encourage—but it is not a requirement—that one Letter of Support should come from someone who is the nominee's current or previous advisor, and one Letter of Support should come from an individual external to the nominating institution, who has never been the nominee’s advisor. Both Letters of Support should follow the guidelines and address the topics listed above.

Historically, language used in letters of recommendation has differed systemically between nominees based on gender, race and ethnicity, and disability, disadvantaging nominees from underrepresented backgrounds¹. In striving for an inclusive and equitable assessment of all honorees, the Blavatnik Awards for Young Scientists encourage letter writers to be mindful of the language they use in their Letters of Support, and to be informative, truthful, relevant, and clear in support of the nominee. For additional help crafting a strong and equitable letter of recommendation, writers can find a tip sheet here.

Nominators will be prompted to provide the names and email addresses of two letter writers during submission of the nomination materials. Letters of Support must be submitted by the letter writers through the online nominations portal by December 18, 2024. Letters of Support are confidential—neither the nominator nor the nominee will be able to view the contents of the letters.

¹Trix F., Psenka C. Exploring the Color of Glass: Letters of Recommendation for Female and Male Medical Faculty. Discourse & Society. 2003; 14(2):191-220. doi:10.1177/0957926503014002277

SUBMITTING INSTITUTIONAL NOMINATIONS

Nominations must be submitted using the online nomination system between October 9, 2024, and December 4, 2024, 11:59PM ET.

Candidates for the Blavatnik Regional Awards must be nominated by their institutions—self-nominations are not allowed.

Each institution may submit up to 15 nominations, distributed as they wish, across the disciplinary categories of Life Sciences, Physical Sciences & Engineering, and Chemical Sciences.

Requests for age limit exceptions must be received by the Academy by November 13, 2024. We strongly encourage institutions considering nominating candidates born prior to 1983 to contact us at blavatnikregionalawards@nyas.org as early as possible during the nomination period. Requests must be approved before nominations of candidates born prior to 1983 can be submitted.

Official Institutional Nominators

Institutional nominations must be submitted by the institution’s President, Provost, or equivalent (or their official designee). The Blavatnik Awards team must be informed of the identity of an institution’s official nominator. Newly-invited institutions, or institutions whose designated nominator has changed since the previous Awards cycle, must send a brief statement to blavatnikregionalawards@nyas.org naming their official designee as nominator before submitting nominations.

The nominator must create an account in the nomination system by clicking the ‘Sign Up’ button on the nomination system front page. The nominator will receive an automated email to verify his/her email address. Nominators may use their accounts created in previous award cycles as long as the email addresses linked with these accounts remain active.

Online Submission Instructions

Nominators with verified accounts may log into the nomination system and begin the nomination process by clicking the ‘Create New Submission’ button. Partially completed nominations may be saved by clicking ‘Save and Continue Editing’ or ‘Save and Exit’ and accessed later until the nomination is submitted or the submission period closes.

To complete a nomination, nominators must:

1. Fill out the Nomination Form:
   • Enter the nominee’s information: institution, name, email address, phone number, title, department, address, date of birth, and disciplinary category.
   • Enter the nominator’s information: name, title, institution, email address, and phone number.
   • Enter the Rationale for Nomination.
   • Upload all supporting documents (CV, Research Summary, Professional Service and Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion Statement; Publications/Patents, and if applicable, approval of age limit exception).
   • Confirm the validity of the nomination: check the box to agree to the statement of confirmation, “By checking the box below, I confirm that this nominee represents one of up to 15 institutional nominations for the 2024 Blavatnik Regional Awards and has the full support of my institution.”
2. Request Letters of Support:
   • Enter the names and email addresses of two letter writers.
   • Letter writers will receive an automated email with instructions on uploading their letters.
   • Letter writers must then upload Letters of Support by 11:59PM ET on December 18, 2024.
   • Once both letters have been uploaded, the nominator and the nominee will receive automated notifications.
3. Submit the Nomination:
   • Once the Nomination Form is complete, all files have been uploaded, and Letters of Support have been requested, the ‘Submit the Nomination’ button will be activated at the bottom of the nomination page.
   • This button must be clicked to submit the nomination before 11:59PM ET on December 4, 2024.

Once a nomination has been submitted, the nominator will receive an on-screen confirmation notice and an automated email, which is also sent to the nominee.

Nominations may not be edited after submission; however, nominators may view the nominations and check the status of the letters of support by logging into their accounts. If you discover any issues with the nomination after submission, please contact us at blavatnikregionalawards@nyas.org.

QUESTIONS

For general questions about nomination procedures, please consult the Frequently Asked Questions page.

For all other inquiries, please contact the Blavatnik Awards team at blavatnikregionalawards@nyas.org or 212.298.8633.