Health and Care Research Wales 2025 Awards now open for applications

Applications are now open for the Health and Care Research Wales Awards 2025, which will celebrate Welsh research excellence in health and social care research over the past 12 months.  

This year we are pleased to announce a new award, the Embedding research in practice award, which seeks to find individuals or teams who have embraced research and embedded it in their organisation’s culture. 

In addition to our new award, this year we’re also accepting nominations for awards.  If you feel that a member of staff or a team has been outstanding in their field, you can nominate them for an award.  

The awards are open to all health and social care researchers in Wales, including health professionals, social care practitioners, allied health professionals and wider affiliated research teams. 

Gareth Cross, Co-Director of Health and Care Research Wales, said: 

It’s been another busy year for the research community in Wales, and we have seen some outstanding achievements by passionate individuals and teams across the spectrum. I look forward to celebrating your commitment and efforts at the conference and would encourage as many of our research community as possible to apply for these awards.” 

The Award categories for 2025 are: 

• Health and social care impact award – can you demonstrate how your health or social care research is making a difference to people’s lives? 

• Rising research star award - are you in the early stages of your health or social care research career? Are you making significant contributions to your field? Are you an emerging future leader?   

• Public involvement award - have you involved the public in your research in a meaningful and innovative way? Does your project meet the UK Standards for Public Involvement?  

• Embedding research in practice - can you or your team demonstrate achievements within your field of practice, where because of their achievements, research is embraced, integrated into services and is a core part of the organisation’s culture. 

Celebrating your research in 2025 

The winners will be decided by a panel of judges and announced live at the Health and Care Research Wales Conference on 16 October 2025 at Sophia Gardens, Cardiff.  

The winner of each category will be awarded a bursary of up to £250 to attend a training course, conference, workshop or similar event to develop an area of their research skillset.  

Entering the awards  

Please read the Health and Care Research Wales Awards 2025 guidance document for full details on eligibility and criteria for each award category.  

Complete and submit the entry form as set out in the guidance document  

Closing date: 09:00 on 8 September 2025 

All award entrants are expected to register and attend the Health and Care Research Wales conference. For more information and to register visit our conference website. 

Past awardees 

Previous awards recognised work from a range of speciality areas including improving oral health of young people, developing first into research clinical trials in North Wales, working with members of the public to develop patient experience surveys and looking into how mental health conditions develop in children. 

Be inspired by winners from previous years