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University of Wisconsin–Madison

Blavatnik Awards for Young Scientists National Competition 2024

Posted August 31, 2023
To:Chairs and Administrators, Departments in the Biological, Physical, and Social Sciences; Associate Deans for Research; College/School Research Administrators
From:Office of the Vice Chancellor for Research & Graduate Education
Date:August 31, 2023
Subject:Blavatnik Awards for Young Scientists National Competition 2024

Deadline

Deadline for Internal Review:October 03, 2023

Project Description

The Blavatnik National Awards for Young Scientists recognize the United States’ most promising faculty-rank researchers in Life Sciences, Physical Sciences & Engineering, and Chemical Sciences.

Nominees and their work as independent investigators will be evaluated according to the following criteria:

  • Quality: The extent to which the work is reliable, valid, credible, and scientifically rigorous.
  • Impact: The extent to which the work addresses an important problem, advances scientific progress, and is influential in the nominee’s field, related fields, or beyond, and/or has the potential to benefit society.
  • Novelty: The extent to which the work challenges existing paradigms, establishes a new field or considerably expands on an existing field, employs original methodologies or concepts, and/or pursues an original question.
  • Promise: The nominee has potential for further significant contributions to science, and the research program will generate further impactful and novel discoveries.

Amount per award: $250,000
Duration of award: 1 Year
Number of awards: One Blavatnik Laureate in each Disciplinary Category

Eligibility

The nominee must:

  • Have been born in or after 1982.
  • Hold a doctorate degree (PhD, DPhil, MD, DDS, DVM, etc.).
  • Currently hold a tenured or tenure-track academic faculty position (or equivalent).
  • Currently conduct research as a principal investigator in one of the disciplinary categories in Life Sciences, Physical Sciences & Engineering, or Chemical Sciences.

UW-Madison may submit up to three nominations, one in each disciplinary category.

The Blavatnik Awards strongly encourage the nomination of women and other underrepresented groups in science and engineering.

Website

The following link contains additional information on the program and specific application instructions:
http://blavatnikawards.org/awards/national-awards/

Internal Competition Application Instructions

Applications for Internal Review

To submit your application, attach a single PDF to an email to: grants@research.wisc.edu

Please include the following information:

  • Cover Page: including name, title, contact information, and disciplinary category (Life Sciences, Physical Sciences & Engineering, or Chemical Sciences).
  • Curriculum Vitae: (Please see the Blavatnik Nomination Materials & Instructions for format).
  • Research Summary: Written in the first person, provide a 1,000-word maximum summary of up to five of the nominee’s most significant scientific contributions and research accomplishments from their independent career. The summary should be written to be accessible to another scientist working in their overarching disciplinary category (e.g., Life Sciences) but not necessarily in their specific field of study (e.g., Neuroscience). 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) should be included. Information about the nominee’s positions, awards, and service activities should be excluded. One figure illustrating the most significant results is allowed. Citations and figure caption do not count toward the word limit.
  • Professional Service and Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion Statement: (1-page maximum) describing outreach activities and/or professional service, with particular 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 better serve those of demographics and/or social backgrounds historically underrepresented in science and engineering;
    • Collaboration and Leadership: Leadership or involvement 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);
    • 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.

All nomination materials should focus on the nominee’s independent career. A nominee’s “independent career” encompasses any research or work performed as an independent research scientist. In most cases, this work will have been performed after a postdoctoral appointment or doctoral thesis has been completed.

Sponsor Deadlines

Applications are due to Blavatnik Family Foundation by November 29, 2023.

Questions?

Contact grants@research.wisc.edu.