Royal Society Wolfson Research Merit Award Explained

Royal Society Wolfson Research Merit Award
Awarded For:	A five-year salary enhancement to help recruit or retain scientists in the UK
Date:	-

The Royal Society Wolfson Research Merit Award was an award made by the Royal Society from 2000 to 2020.^{[1] [2]}

It was administered by the Royal Society and jointly funded by the Wolfson Foundation and the UK Office of Science and Technology, to provide universities "with additional financial support to attract key researchers to this country or to retain those who might seek to gain higher salaries elsewhere."^[1] to tackle the brain drain. They were given in four annual rounds, with up to seven awards per round.^[3]

In 2020 the scheme was replaced by the Royal Society Wolfson Fellowship, described by the Royal Society as providing long-term flexible funding for senior career researchers recruited or retained to a UK university or research institution in fields identified as a strategic priority for the host department or organisation.^[4]

Recipients

Winners of this award (see Royal Society Wolfson Research Merit Award holders) award included:

• Sue Black^[5]
• Samuel L. Braunstein
• Martin Bridson (2012)
• Michael Bronstein (2018)
• Peter Buneman
• Michael Cant (2015)
• José A. Carrillo (2012)
• Ken Carslaw
• Marianna Csörnyei
• Candace Currie (2015)
• Nicholas Dale (2015)
• Roger Davies
• René de Borst
• Nora de Leeuw
• Jonathan Essex
• Ernesto Estrada
• Wenfei Fan
• Michael Farber (2004)
• Andrea C. Ferrari
• Philip A. Gale (2013)
• Matthew Gaunt (2015)
• Alain Goriely (2010)
• Georg Gottlob
• Andrew Granville (2015)
• Peter Green
• Ruth Gregory
• Martin Hairer
• Edwin Hancock
• Mark Handley
• Nicholas Higham
• Simone Hochgreb (2003)
• Saiful Islam (2013)
• Brad Karp
• Tara Keck
• Rebecca Kilner (2015)
• Daniela Kuhn (2015)
• Ari Laptev
• Tim Lenton
• Malcolm Levitt
  • Stephan Lewandowsky Leonid Libkin
• Jon Lloyd (microbiologist) (2015)
• Andy Mackenzie
• Barbara Maher (2006-2012)
• Vladimir Markovic
• Robin May (2015)
• Paul Milewski
• E.J. Milner-Gulland
• Tim Minshull (2015)^[6]
• André Neves
• Peter O'Hearn^[7]
• William Lionheart ^[6] (2015)
• Fabrice Pierron^[8]
• Alistair Pike
• Gordon Plotkin
• Adrian Podoleanu (2015)
• Fernando Quevedo (2003)
• David Richardson
• Gareth Roberts (2015)
• Alexander Ruban (2015)
• Daniela Schmidt (2015)
• Steven H. Simon
• Nigel Smart
• John Smillie (2015)
• Stefan Söldner-Rembold (2013)
• John Speakman
• David Stephenson (2015)
• Kate Storey (2015)
• Andrew Taylor (2015)
• Françoise Tisseur (2014)
• Richard Thomas
• Vlatko Vedral (2007)
• Benjamin Willcox (2015)
• Richard Winpenny (2009)
• Philip J. Withers (2002)
• Tim Wright (2015)
• Ziheng Yang
• Xin Yao (2012)
• Nikolay I. Zheludev
• Florian Markowetz (2017)

Notes and References

1. Web site: Royal Society Wolfson Research Merit Award. Royal Society. 26 November 2018. https://web.archive.org/web/20190107214006/https://royalsociety.org/grants-schemes-awards/grants/wolfson-research-merit. 2019-01-07.
2. Web site: £4m set aside to lure 'Beckhams of science'. The Daily Telegraph. 2000. telegraph.co.uk. Roger. Highfield. Roger Highfield.
3. Smaglik . Paul . Battling the brain drain . 10.1038/nj6871-03a . Nature . 415 . 6871 . 3–31 . 2002 . 11823808. 2002Natur.415W...3S . free .
4. Web site: Royal Society Wolfson Fellowship | Royal Society.
5. Web site: Royal Society announces new round of esteemed Wolfson Research Merit Awards. royalsociety.org. Royal Society. 19 January 2015. London. 9 May 2014. Professor Sue Black – University of Dundee, The new biometric - your life in your hands.
6. Web site: Grant winners. Anon. timeshighereducation.com. Times Higher Education. 23 December 2018. London. 9 April 2015.
7. Web site: Peter O'Hearn Royal Society . royalsociety.org . dead . https://web.archive.org/web/20180517153647/https://royalsociety.org/people/peterohearn7815/ . 2018-05-17.
8. Web site: Royal Society announces first round of prestigious Wolfson Research Merit Awards for 2012. royalsociety.org. Royal Society. 19 January 2015. London. 28 May 2012. Professor Fabrice Pierron - University of Southampton, Imaging the mechanical properties of materials.