In the Research Live awards categories, BritainThinks was named agency of the year.

Northstar Research won the best place to work award, while the judges highly commended Opinium in the category.

Business impact of the year – global – was awarded to Nato and Yonder (formerly Populus), while Tesco and C Space took the UK award for business impact of the year.

BBC Audiences – Sounds took the in-house team award for 2020, while Blue Yonder was named breakthrough business of the year.

This year’s Research Live award for innovation of the year went to Jigsaw Research for its WhatsApp-supported and authenticated research project.

Tarek Chaudhury from Discover.ai and Bessie Pike of Walnut Unlimited were jointly named Research Live’s young researcher of the year.

The MRS Pride award for inclusive research, a new accolade for 2020, went to Humankind Research and Independent Age. 

Humankind Research, along with Stop the Traffik, was also awarded this year’s Liz Nelson award for social impact.

The MRS president’s medal – selected by Jan Gooding, president of MRS; Nick Baker, MRS chair; and chief executive Jane Frost – was awarded to Professor Sir David Spiegelhalter for informing public discourse with data-driven insight.

Jane Frost, chief executive at MRS, said: “The MRS Awards ceremony is always a proud evening for me, but this was especially true this year. The value of evidence and insight has grown exponentially throughout the pandemic, and research has proven itself strategically important, not just to vital government projects, but in commercial organisations as well. 

“The quality and breadth of these entries reflects how resilient and dynamic our sector continues to be and reaffirms my view that we are well equipped to build on our progress this year and tackle whatever comes in 2021.”

The full list of 2020 MRS Awards winners can be found here.