British Nutrition Foundation Drummond Early Career Scientist Award 2023

British Nutrition Foundation Drummond Early Career Scientist Award 2023

The British Nutrition Foundation Drummond Early Career Scientist Award is an annual scheme run by the British Nutrition Foundation to recognise early career nutrition scientists, whether working in academia, policy or industry, who show great potential to be future leaders in the field.

The Award has been made possible through the British Nutrition Foundation’s management of the Drummond Memorial Fund, established in memory of the work and contribution of Sir Jack Drummond.

Applicants to the British Nutrition Foundation Drummond Early Career Scientist Award are required to complete an application form and submit an abstract for a mini review that describes an emerging area of human nutrition science and would be suitable for submission to Nutrition Bulletin. As the official journal of the British Nutrition Foundation, Nutrition Bulletin is an international, peer-reviewed journal publishing concise and informative articles about recent developments in current thinking in human nutrition science. It provides an interface between stakeholders in universities, industry, government, research, healthcare, education and media.

Applicants are judged on their contributions to nutrition science, the scientific merit and clarity of communication of their abstract, as well as their potential to become future leaders in the field.

Eligibility criteria

The award is open to MSc and PhD students who are currently studying human nutrition, or a related field, as well as those within three years of being awarded a PhD (i.e. the date that amendments to your thesis were accepted and the degree awarded) or within six years of being awarded an MSc (i.e. the date of receiving your transcript) in these areas. Those who were awarded their PhD or MSc degrees more than three or six years ago respectively but took formal time out during this period for personal reasons (e.g. maternity/paternity/adoption leave; long-term ill heath) may still be eligible, depending on the time passed since finishing and the time taken as leave. Such instances will be dealt with on a case-by-case basis and Edith Mhango (e.mhango@nutrition.org.uk) should be contacted to discuss eligibility. Applications are welcome from any country.

How to apply

Applicants are required to complete all sections of the application form. The form includes space for an abstract for a mini-review paper that will describe an emerging area of human nutrition science, including its relevance to public health, the most important research findings to date, where the applicant’s research advances current understanding in the field (if applicable) and implications for future research and practice.

The abstract should be 300 words maximum and must include a title along with author(s) and their affiliations (title, author and affiliations do not contribute towards the word count). We expect that the applicant would be the first author. The abstract does not need to include any references but any you wish to include do not contribute towards the word count.

We welcome abstracts on, but not limited to, the following areas:

• the biochemical and physiological basis for the role of various nutrients in the human body;
• epidemiological associations between diet/nutrients and aspects of human health, and particular issues related to population sub-groups;
• human nutrition interventions in disease prevention;
• psychobiological and behavioural aspects of human nutrition;
• the impact of methods of food manufacture and supply on human diet/nutrition.

Please note that abstracts describing experimental or modelling work will not be considered for the award. 

Application forms will be used to help identify those applicants who show the greatest potential to become future leaders in the field. The abstracts will be judged on both their scientific merit and clarity of communication.

Selection process

Applications will be reviewed both internally by the British Nutrition Foundation and externally by selected members of the Editorial Advisory Board for Nutrition Bulletin.

Applications are blinded for shortlisting and judging is carried out using a strict criteria.

Recipients of the Award

The winner and any runners up will be invited to turn their abstract into a mini-review paper for publication in Nutrition Bulletin. Upon acceptance of the paper, the winner receives a year’s online subscription to Nutrition Bulletin, plus a £500 honorarium. The winners and any runners up will be invited to receive their award at the prestigious British Nutrition Foundation Annual Day in central London on 14th November 2023 (attendance is optional).

It is expected that the invited mini-review papers submitted to Nutrition Bulletin will be between 3000 and 8000 words (excluding abstract and references) and include an abstract, six keywords, full referencing and a conflict of interest statement (see author guidelines). The papers should be original contributions and not previously published elsewhere. Submissions will be reviewed by the Nutrition Bulletin Editorial Board and two external peer-reviewers.

The most recent winner was Dr Fiona Lavelle (Institute for Global Food Security, Queen’s University Belfast). You can read Dr Lavelle's review 'A critical review of children's culinary nutrition interventions, the methodologies used and their impact on dietary, psychosocial and wellbeing outcomes', which was published in Nutrition Bulletin and you can watch a video of Dr Lavelle talking about her work. The most recent runners-up were Dr Aoife Caffrey (Nutrition Innovation Centre for Food and Health (NICHE), Ulster University) and Dr Elena George (Institute for Physical Activity and Nutrition, Deakin University). 

Key dates

• Closing date for applications: midnight on 24 May 2023 
• Winners and runners up will be notified by the end of July 2023
• Award presented at the British Nutrition Foundation Annual Day (winner and any runners up): 7 November 2023  
• Invited papers to be submitted to Nutrition Bulletin by 1 April 2024
• Expected publication of invited Nutrition Bulletin papers (winner and runners-up): September 2024

Please submit completed application forms to Edith Mhango  (e.mhango@nutrition.org.uk)

Early Career Scientist Award 2022

Applications for the 2022 British Nutrition Foundation Drummond Early Career Scientist Award are now closed.

Winners and runners up will be notified by the end of September 2022.

The award will be presented at an awards ceremony at British Nutrition Foundation Annual Day on 15 November 2022 in central London.

We are no longer accepting applications for the Early Career Scientist Award 2023.