2025 RIA Gold Medals: call for nominations

The Gold Medals have become the ultimate accolade in scholarly achievement in Ireland. 2025 will mark twenty years since the Gold Medals were established to acclaim Ireland’s foremost thinkers in the humanities, social sciences, and across the fields of science. Since 2005, 34 medals have been awarded.

In 2025, the Royal Irish Academy will present the RIA Gold Medal in the Humanities and the RIA Gold Medal in the Life and Medical Sciences to individuals who have made a demonstrable and internationally recognised outstanding scholarly contribution in their fields.

The closing date for receipt of nominations is Tuesday, 4 June 2024 at 5p.m.

Eligibility

• Eligibility for candidature is restricted to persons who are usually resident in Ireland.

• Candidates must be currently making a distinguished, demonstrable, and internationally recognised scholarly contribution to their field.

• The work underpinning this scholarly contribution will have been undertaken while candidates have been working in Ireland.

• Candidates are expected to be research active at the time of nomination.

• Please note: serving Officers of the Royal Irish Academy are not eligible for candidature.

Nomination procedure

• Information on the RIA Gold Medal in the Humanities

• Information on the RIA Gold Medal in the Life and Medical Sciences

• Guide for Nominators

A complete nomination will require the following:

• Nomination Form with a citation for the candidate of no more than 850 words, prepared by the proposer and/or seconder.

• A supporting statement of not more than 400 words outlining the candidates scholarly achievements and contributions, prepared by the proposer and/or seconder.

• A current CV for the candidate using the narrative CV template provided. Download Narrative CV template - word document version.

• a list (no more than twenty) of the candidate’s most important publications to date, including evidence of current research, with an evaluation (no more than 850 words) by the proposer and seconder of the five most ground-breaking publications. Nominators are requested to provide access to or a copy of at least two of the five selected publications to assist the award committee in their assessment of the nomination. Where the selected publication is a book, please provide access to a chapter from that publication.

Who can nominate?

A proposer and a seconder are required. Either the proposer or the seconder must be a:

• Member of the Royal Irish Academy, or

• Honorary member of the Royal Irish Academy, or

• Current member of a RIA Multidisciplinary Committee, or

• Head of an institution designated under the Higher Education Act (2022) or a Higher Education Institution based in Northern Ireland.

• Please note: serving Officers of the Royal Irish Academy are not eligible to nominate.

The closing date for receipt of nominations is Tuesday, 4 June 2024 at 5p.m.

Diversity

The RIA seeks to ensure greater gender, disciplinary, institutional, and overall diversity in all of its activities. In the event that, at the close of the call for nominations, the RIA is not satisfied that the nominations received are fully representative of the diversity, and especially the gender diversity, of the field, the nomination process may be reopened. Should the RIA continue to have concerns in this regard the assessment of nominations will not proceed, and the Gold Medal will not be awarded.

Contact

Please email awards@ria.ie(link sends e-mail) with all queries.

The 2025 RIA Gold Medals are sponsored by AIB.

For more details on the Gold Medals process, please refer to the Terms of Reference.

Data Protection

All personal data supplied with a nomination for the Gold Medals is used for the purpose of peer-review and competitive assessment for this award only. Please refer to the Royal Irish Academy Gold Medal Privacy Notice which are available on the RIA's Privacy page.