Blavatnik National Awards for Young Scientists

Below is a summary assembled by the Research & Innovation Office (RIO). Please see the full solicitation for complete information about the funding opportunity. This program is highly prestigious, on the level of a Nobel prize for an early-career faculty member.

Program Summary

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. One Blavatnik National Awards Laureate in each disciplinary category will receive $250,000 in unrestricted funds, and additional nominees will be recognized as Finalists, and will receive $15,000 in unrestricted funds.

Deadlines

CU Internal Deadline: 11:59pm MST November 4, 2024

Sponsor Nominee Eligibility Exception Deadline: November 13, 2024

Sponsor Nomination Deadline: December 4, 2024

Sponsor Letter of Support Deadline: December 18, 2024

  • Letter writers will receive an automated email with instructions on uploading their letters. Letters of Support are confidential—neither the nominator nor the nominee will be able to view the contents of the letters.

Internal Application Requirements (all in PDF format)

  • Category (select one)
    • Life Sciences
    • Physical Sciences & Engineering
    • Chemical Sciences
  • Nominator’s Rationale for Nomination (200-word maximum): For the purposes of the internal competition, the rationale should be from a dean, director, chair, or associate dean for research. Explain why the nominee should be selected as the institutional nominee based on his/her strong record of significant independent scientific contributions, early career success, and promise of sustained or accelerated progress in the future. Nominators are encouraged to review past Blavatnik recipients to learn of the caliber of this award: http://blavatnikawards.org/honorees/national-finalists/
  • Nominee’s CV
  • Nominee’s Research Summary (1,000-word maximum, written in the first person by nominee): Describe up to five of the nominee’s most significant scientific contributions and research accomplishments from their independent career. The research summary should be accessible to another scientist working in their overarching disciplinary category. Key results, their impact on the nominee’s field of study, and the nominee’s specific role in the described work, particularly where the nominee is involved in large collaborations, should be included. Information about the nominee’s positions, awards, service activities, or other information in the CV should be excluded. One figure illustrating the most significant results is allowed (citations and figure caption do not count toward the word limit).
  • Age Certification
    • Have been born in or after 1983. Age limit exceptions will be considered by the Blavatnik Family Foundation in exceptional circumstances upon a detailed written submission from the nominating institution received by the New York Academy of Sciences at blavatnikawards@nyas.org no later than Wednesday, November 13. We strongly encourage institutions considering nominating candidates born prior to 1983 to contact us as early as possible during the nomination period.

To access the online application, visit: https://cuboulderovcr.secure-platform.com/a/solicitations/7016/home

Eligibility

  • Have been born in or after 1983. Age limit exceptions will be considered by the Blavatnik Family Foundation in exceptional circumstances upon a detailed written submission from the nominating institution received by the New York Academy of Sciences at blavatnikawards@nyas.org no later than Wednesday, November 13. We strongly encourage institutions considering nominating candidates born prior to 1983 to contact Blavatnik as early as possible during the nomination period.
  • Hold a doctorate degree (PhD, DPhil, MD, DDS, DVM, etc.).
  • Currently hold a tenured or tenure-track faculty position at an invited institution in the United States.
  • Currently conduct research as a principal investigator in one of the disciplinary categories in Life Sciences, Physical Sciences & Engineering, or Chemical Sciences.
  • The Blavatnik Awards strongly encourages all those submitting nominations to the Awards—including institutional nominators, Scientific Advisory Council members, and past Blavatnik Awards Laureates—to diversify the population of candidates nominated for this Award.
  • Self-nominations are not allowed.
  • Non-winning nominees from prior Blavatnik Awards nomination cycles are eligible to be re-nominated by their institutions as one of their three nominees, provided they still meet all eligibility requirements.

Limited Submission Guidelines

Each institution may submit up to three nominations, one in each disciplinary category of Life Sciences, Physical Sciences & Engineering, and Chemical Sciences.

Award Information

One Blavatnik National Awards Laureate in each disciplinary category will receive $250,000 in unrestricted funds, and additional nominees will be recognized as Finalists, and will receive $15,000 in unrestricted funds.

Review Criteria

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.