Awards and Prizes

National Clinical Impact Awards – Role of member organisations

The Advisory Committee on Clinical Impact Awards (ACCIA) has announced important changes to their processes for selecting individuals for their National Clinical Impact Awards.

They no longer accept citations, and member organisations may no longer provide ranked lists of candidates. They felt that neither of these processes had significantly impacted the outcome of the final rankings and were potentially dissuading some candidates from applying.

They still feel membership organisations have a role in advising candidates on applications.

The BSH strongly recommends candidates read the guidance provided by the ACCIA and complete their applications strictly according to this. Failure to do so results in otherwise strong applications being marked down harshly.

Applications for the 2024 National Clinical Impact Awards round have now closed.

The BSH Crucible Prize is an innovative trainee-led initiative with a £1,000 prize, where the five top abstracts are selected for oral presentation at our Annual Scientific Meeting.

The Prize aims to encourage reflection on what haematologists do and why they do it.

Those selected are questioned and judged by a panel of senior haematologists on the quality and originality of their content, presentation skills and response to questions.

The Prize is open to doctors in training, nurses and other healthcare professionals (at any stage of their career).

Find out more about the Crucible Prize

Each year, we invite essays on a topic agreed upon by the Education Committee.

The winner will receive a prize of £500, and the runner-up will receive £250. The winning essay will be featured on the British Society for Haematology pages within the British Journal of Haematology (print version only).

We will announce the topic for the 2025 essay in due course.

When submitting your essay, please note:

The word limit is 2,500 words, excluding references.

• We allow a maximum of 20 references in any standard style.
• Please submit your essay in Word format (not .docx). We do not accept PDFs or other formats.
• Use an 11-point Arial font with a line spacing of 1.5.
• Include details of your medical school, the course and your current year of study.

Essay marking criteria

We may check entries for plagiarism.

Eligibility criteria:

• Undergraduate medical students from UK medical schools.
• Healthcare scientists (HCPC registered biomedical and clinical scientists) Band 6 and below, undertaking any formal training programme under the remit of the Institute of Biomedical Science (IBMS), accredited undergraduate BSc degrees with registration portfolio and postgraduate MSc level with specialist diploma and trainees undertaking the British Blood Transfusion Society (BBTS) specialist certificate and the National School of Healthcare Science (NSHCS) Scientist Training Programme (STP).
• Physician assistants/associates (PAs) undertaking formal training in any recognised/accredited physician associate higher education institution prior to passing the PA National Examination.

We will announce the deadline for submissions for the 2025 prize in due course.

The NIHR-BSH Researcher of the Year award is a joint initiative between the BSH and the National Institute for Health Research (NIHR) to recognise recent contributions to clinical research efforts made by members of the BSH.

An award of £500 each will be given during the BSH Annual Scientific Meeting to up to three consultants, two trainees, and an allied health professional (AHP) or nurse selected by a joint panel of NIHR and BSH representatives.

Applicants must be active NHS consultants, trainees, nurses, physician associates, pharmacists or allied health professionals and should not hold a substantive academic appointment. They must also be members of the BSH.

We will announce the deadline for the 2025 award in due course.

The BSH Lifetime Achievement Award honours and recognises outstanding individuals who have made a major contribution to haematology in the UK (though the candidate does not have to be British).

Award criteria:

• The award is for exceptional contribution to UK and international haematology.
• Nominees can be from any discipline – scientist, nurse, medic, BMS, etc.
• Nominees do not need to have been a BSH member or UK citizen.
• The nominee should have spent the majority of their career in the UK.
• The award is not intended to be for academic work alone.
• The nominee should be in the latter part of their career or retired.
• The nominee cannot be a current trustee or an office bearer for the previous three years.
• It cannot be awarded posthumously.

Other information:

• The award will not necessarily be awarded annually.
• The award will be made at the BSH Annual Scientific Meeting.

We will announce the deadline for nominations for the 2025 award in due course.

These are exciting new awards created by the BSH Early Career Forum. Each award has a prize value of £1,500, plus expenses to attend the 2025 BSH Annual Scientific Meeting.

These two awards will be for projects or ideas in service improvement, leadership, and workforce rearrangement. Applicants are encouraged to think broadly and innovatively. The prizes aim to foster professional development in students and people early in their careers and encourage reflection on how everyone can contribute to improvements in healthcare regardless of career stage.

The submission should relate to, or have the main focus on, haematology.

Eligibility:

This award is open to BSH members and non-members.

For the Undergraduate Achievement Award:

This prize is open to all healthcare students completing an undergraduate degree in their field.

For the Early Careers Achievement Award:

This prize is open to doctors in training, nurses and other healthcare professionals, a maximum of four years post-qualification. 

Application process and timeline:

Applications will open in November 2024.

Please email our Head of Engagement, Theresa Crossley, with any questions.