BSI Outstanding Team Award

The BSI Outstanding Team Award recognises an exceptional team whose collaborative approach has made a significant impact on immunology research and/or clinical practice.

This award champions instances where specialists with diverse skillsets and backgrounds have worked together to address a complex research and/or health challenge. The winners will be role models for how a collaborative, integrated approach to research and/or clinical practice can drive innovation, achievement and outcomes for immunology and will be an inspiration to others. 

In 2023, this award went to the Northern Ireland Multiple Sclerosis Research Network, based at Queen's University Belfast and Belfast Health and Social Care Trust. The Network was formed in 2016 with the aim of rebuilding, sustaining and advancing MS research in Northern Ireland, which has one of the highest global rates of MS. It provides a valuable forum for MS scientists and clinicians, helping to support cutting-edge research, build career pathways, retain and attract talent to Northern Ireland, and deliver cross-disciplinary projects.

The BSI is committed to ensuring diversity amongst its award recipients. We encourage eligible candidates from all sectors of the Society’s membership to apply, especially those from underrepresented groups.

Eligibility

• At least one team member must be a BSI member
• Open to teams working in all fields and sectors within or related to immunology 
• Team members can be based across a number of institutions and organisations. The majority of the team members must be based at UK institutions although international collaborators can be included.  
• There is no upper limit on the number of team members that can be included, but you should be able to demonstrate how all individuals named have made a positive contribution to the team effort 
• We encourage applications from cross-disciplinary teams involving collaboration between immunology and other science/medical disciplines
• The project that the team has collaborated on can be in a number of different areas, for example:
  • Research and advancing science
  • Clinical practice and advancing patient care
  • Enabling clinical translation
  • Commercial impact
  • Influencing policy and practice
  • Advocacy, EDI or public engagement 
• We encourage nominations to include a variety of team members, including early career grades and roles that are not always well recognised in awards. Team members may include (but are not limited to) individuals carrying out the following roles: 
  • Researchers
  • Clinicians
  • Nurses
  • Technicians
  • Data scientists
  • Research administrators
  • PPI representatives
  • Laboratory managers
  • Other individuals whose skills were critical to enabling the work to be taken forward

How to nominate

Nominations are now closed for 2023 and will reopen next year.

 To read more about the BSI Immunology Awards and this year's winners, click here.

How are the awards judged?

Once the nomination deadline has passed, nominations that fulfil the award’s eligibility criteria will be judged by a panel of experts. They will be assessing a number of factors including:

• Evidence of how a collaborative ‘team science’ approach has driven forward innovation and outcomes to make an outstanding contribution for immunology
• Evidence of impact from the project
• Demonstrable commitment to nurturing talent within the team and inspiring others
• Evidence of a positive and inclusive working culture where the contributions of all team members are valued and recognised

The recommendation from the judging panel will be taken forward to the BSI Nominations Committee for ratification.

Further information

If you are nominating someone other than yourself, the BSI will contact the nominee within 30 days of the nomination being received to obtain consent from them to hold their personal information. If we do not receive consent from the nominee within this 30-day period, we will be unable to hold their personal information and we will not be able to process the nomination further.

If you are self-nominating, by submitting an application you give us consent to hold the personal information provided in the form below in relation to processing your nomination for the Outstanding Team Award.

We take your data security extremely seriously. We keep it safe, treat it with respect and we will never sell or share your data to any third parties for marketing purposes. To find out more information you can read our Privacy Policy and Data Protection Policy on our website. If you have any queries, please contact dp@immunology.org.