Nominations open for Research Honours 2025

Please note the closing date for applications is Monday, 31 March 2025.

The Society’s Academy Executive Committee is focused on increasing the diversity of nominations from under-represented groups, particularly with respect to gender, ethnicity and employment context, including from Crown Research Institutes and Independent Research Organisations.

The following medals and awards are being offered in 2025 by the Royal Society Te Apārangi.

• Rutherford Medal – for preeminent research, scholarship, or innovation by a person, or team, in any field of engineering, humanities, mathematics, sciences, social sciences, or technology
• Te Rangaunua Hiranga Māori Award – for excellent and innovative research co-created by Māori, that has made a distinctive contribution to community wellbeing and development in Aotearoa New Zealand

Communication and Leadership

• Callaghan Medal – for outstanding contributions to communicating science and technology, and raising public awareness of its value
• MacDiarmid Medal – for outstanding scientific research that demonstrates the potential for application to human benefit
• Thomson Medal – for outstanding contributions to the organisation, support, and application of research in science, technology, or the humanities

Humanities and Social Sciences

• Humanities Aronui Medal – for research or innovative work of outstanding merit in the humanities
• Mason Durie Medal – for New Zealand’s preeminent social scientist, recognising research that has had both national and international impact
• Te Rangi Hiroa Medal – for outstanding work in social history, cultural diversity, socioeconomics, or medical anthropology
• Pou Aronui Award – for distinguished service and sustained contributions to the field of humanities research

Physical and Biological Sciences

• Hector Medal – for outstanding work in chemical, physical, mathematical, or  information sciences
• Hutton Medal – for work of outstanding scientific or technological merit in animal sciences, earth sciences, or plant sciences
• Charles Fleming Award for Environmental Achievement – for distinction in the protection, maintenance, management or understanding of New Zealand’s environment

Technology and Applied Sciences

• Pickering Medal – for innovation and excellence in technology that has generated significant impact and commercial success both nationally and internationally
• Scott Medal – for making an outstanding contribution to engineering sciences and technologies and their application

Early Career Researcher Awards

• Cooper Award – for an early career researcher for excellence in technology, applied sciences, or engineering
• Hamilton Award – for an early career researcher for excellence in scientific research
• Hatherton Award – for the best scientific paper by a PhD student in mathematics, chemical sciences, physical sciences, or information sciences
• Early Career Research Excellence Award for the Humanities – for an early career researcher for excellence in the humanities
• Early Career Research Excellence Award for the Social Sciences – for an early career researcher for excellence in the social sciences
• Te Kōpūnui Māori Research Award – for an early career Māori researcher for innovative research with the potential for significant impact

Other Academy research funds and awards now open for application

• Charles Fleming Senior Scientist Award – grant worth up to $10,000 to support the research of an outstanding senior scientist in New Zealand
• Charles Fleming Publishing Award – grant worth up to $8,000 to support the preparation of scientific books and publications
• Hutton Fund – grant of $1,000 for research in New Zealand zoology, botany, and geology
• Skinner Fund – grant of $1,000 for research in the study of the history, art, culture, physical, and social anthropology of Māori and Polynesian peoples

The medals and awards for 2024 were awarded in three ceremonies during November 2024.

We look forward to receiving your nominations.