MRS award winners 2021 announced

In the Research Live award categories of the Cint-sponsored MRS Awards, Opinium won agency of the year, sponsored by GlobaLexicon.

Empower Translate was named Research Live best place to work, sponsored by Kogan Page, with One Minute to Midnight highly commended.

Young researcher of the year – supplier, sponsored by IFF Research, had two winners: Matt Hellon, Northstar Research, and Ande Milinyte, Opinium.

Research Live award for young researcher of the year – client, sponsored by Opinium, went to Matt Walker from The Co-op.

Innovation of the year, sponsored by Quirk’s, went to Big Sofa Technologies, while best new venture was won by Basis Social.

Research Live business impact of the year – global was awarded to Jaguar Land Rover and Northstar Research, with Shell and Kantar highly commended.

Business impact of the year – UK, sponsored by The Marketing Society, was won by Emotional Logic and Centre:mk.

Research Live in-house team of the year, sponsored by Trinity McQueen, went to BT.

In the MRS Awards, the Liz Nelson Grand Prix for Social Impact went to Macmillan. Macmillan also won the MRS Award for Public Policy/Social Research, with Ipsos Mori highly commended. 

The MRS President’s Medal was won by Professor Yvonne Jewkes, University of Bath, for research into the impact of penal architecture on prisoners and prison staff, with Edda Humprecht, Frank Esser and Peter Van Aelst highly commended for their work on online disinformation.

Jane Frost, chief executive of MRS, said: “It is no exaggeration to say that our sector was propelled to the heart of decision making in early 2020 as business and government leaders turned to us as never before for insight and advice – and long may this continue. It’s important that we celebrate this and highlight all the top quality research and insight delivered over the past 12 months. 

“This year’s entries were outstanding in terms of their innovation and impact, and are great exemplars for the power of research and insight. Congratulations to all the winners and thank you to the MRS awards team for yet again delivering a slick and entertaining ceremony, under challenging circumstances.”