The HRC established the Catalyst in the Community Award in 2025. It recognises an individual or research team whose recent research has supported local, transformative, and cross-disciplinary research in health for any specific community in New Zealand, in partnership with that community, over a 5-year period.
The award honours an exceptional researcher or research team that has facilitated significant change or accelerated translation and uptake of findings to produce a significant impact locally in the community, bringing about transformation of health outcomes. For the purposes of this award, a community is defined as any population group, or representatives of that group, who are seeking to improve health outcomes for their population through health research. The award is for a specific body of high-impact collaborative work, in partnership with a local community, that goes beyond academia.
The 2025 Catalyst in the Community Award will be presented later this year. Accommodation and transport will be arranged for the recipient and partner (or two representatives from the research team) if required.
2025 call for nominations now open
Nominations are now open for the 2025 Catalyst in the Community Award. The HRC welcomes nominations from individuals/teams working with any community in partnership to improve health outcomes.
Eligibility criteria:
- Self-nominations are acceptable.
- The award is for either a:
- specific body of work over 5-years before the nomination due date for work in partnership that has been translated and taken up sustainably in the community (e.g. policy, social media campaign, help booklets, presentations/hui); or,
- specific piece of research over a short period resulting in a peer-reviewed journal/publication that has been published 2 calendar years before the nomination submission, i.e. from January to December 2023 (to allow time to demonstrate the impact of the research). - Must be a health researcher/team/member(s) of a community going beyond academia.
- Research should demonstrate evidence of community engagement, partnership and empowerment, that has facilitated translation into New Zealand policy/clinical/community settings.
- Must recognise locally impactful work that has been transformative.
- The award is intended to recognise stars in their respective health research fields – emerging researchers should be encouraged; consideration will be relative to opportunity and level of funding received to perform the work.
- Research must be cross-disciplinary and highly collaborative.
- An assessing committee will be convened to discuss the nominations before making their recommendations to Council. The award is open for nominations annually but may be held over at the discretion of Council if it is deemed no applications meet the criteria.
- Nominees (individuals or team) are eligible to receive all HRC awards more than once with a five-year stand down period following receipt of any HRC award (for example, if a nominee first received the award in 2020, they are ineligible for the 2025 award; if first received in 2019, nominees are again eligible for the 2025 award).
- Current Health Research Council members are not eligible to receive any HRC medals while in post.
- An assessing committee will be convened to discuss the nominations before making their recommendations to Council. The award is open for nominations annually but may be held over at the discretion of Council if it is deemed no applications meet the criteria.
- If the nomination is related to a publication, the publisher must have permitted dissemination.
- The eligible work must also have been carried out/published while the lead researcher(s) was/were predominantly in New Zealand.
- An accumulated body of work to mark translational research over a career does not meet the criteria (refer to the Beaven Medal).
- A research paper/specific piece of research with largely international significance does not meet the criteria (refer to the Liley Medal).
Nominations should include:
- name and contact details of the nominee
- a cover letter (<800 words) including a brief narrative description of the work regarding:
- how the research has been cross-disciplinary and collaborative
- how the research/team has engaged with, co-produced research in partnership, and/or empowered the community to lead to translation and a sustainable local impact with health solutions and better health outcomes
- what the impact of the research has been, with evidence and supporting narrative provided to highlight the transformative and innovative nature of the research in New Zealand, beyond providing journal citation(s) alone
- how the work has contributed to health benefits that have advanced health for a community in New Zealand
- how the researcher/team/member of the community has shown leadership
- how the health research findings have been disseminated and translated back to the community
- the total level of funding received to support the research. - Either a:
- a 3-page summary of a body of work completed in the past 5-years before the nomination due date: or,
- an electronic PDF copy of a maximum of 2 full research papers, guideline(s), and/or other description (maximum 3 pages) of the transformative and high-impact research (published in the 2 calendar years before the nomination submission, i.e. from January to December 2023).
Nominations close at 1pm Tuesday 6 May 2025 and should be directed to Dr Katie Palastanga via email at medals@hrc.govt.nz. If you’re nominating on behalf of someone, you must inform the nominee.