MRS Awards 2018 winners announced

ICM Unlimited was awarded the MRS Grand Prix for greatest impact, for its paper ‘Measuring the socio-economic impact of changes to PIP eligibly criteria for people living with MS: a participatory approach’, which also took the MRS award for public policy/social research.

The MRS president’s medal for 2018, presented by Jan Gooding, president of MRS and chair of Stonewall, was awarded to Paragon Partnerships: UN SDG Action Campaign and Kantar Public, who developed and tested a library of questions to help countries measure their progress on the UN’s sustainable development goals.

The Centre for Tropical Medicine and Global Health, funded by the Global Challenges Research Fund and supported by the UK Research Council, was highly commended for the medal.

In the Research Live Awards, C Space was named best agency with a turnover above £20m for the second year in a row, and the company was also named best place to work. MTM was awarded best agency with a turnover under £20m.

The judges also highly commended ABA Research and Join the Dots for the best place to work award.

The Research Live award for business impact of the year went to Formula 1 and Flamingo, with Formula 1 also named winner of the best in-house research team.

Kantar and Tesco were also highly commended for business impact of the year.

Taking the award for breakthrough business of the year was Walnut Unlimited, which was formed from the merger of Unlimited Group’s insight agencies last year.

Meanwhile, Streetbees, which uses artificial intelligence and geo-location technology to glean insights from a global community, took the Research Live award for best innovation.

Young Researcher of the Year was jointly awarded to Momo Amjad of Bamm and Opinium Research’s James Crouch.

Jane Frost, chief executive of MRS, said: “It is more important than ever, in these times of economic and political uncertainty, to demonstrate the relevance of research and the power of insight to make sense of the world around us, underpin truth and generate change. 

“This year’s range of entries, from charities, government, business, sport, media and entertainment have once again showcased everything that is brilliant about our sector and the far-reaching impact it has on people’s lives. There may well be stormy weather ahead, but I am confident we have the talent and the tools to navigate whatever 2019 brings.”

The full list of MRS Awards winners can be found here. 

Pictured: MRS president Jan Gooding with Grand Prix winners ICM Unlimited and host Shappi Khorsandi.