The winners of the awards will be announced at the MRS Awards on 1^st December, which will be a black-tie dinner held at the Grand Hall of Old Billingsgate in London.

The award for Research Live agency of the year, sponsored by Q2Q Global, will be contested by Basis, FlexMR, Flood, IFF Research, Kokoro, Opinium and PA Human Insight (formerly Sparkler).

Best new venture, sponsored by InsightX, includes Disrupt Insight, EXPLNERS, Firefish & QualifyAI, and One Minute to Midnight (& Counting).

Best place to work, sponsored by I-view London, sees Curve Analytics, Firefish, IFF Research, Kokoro Global, Opinium and See Research nominated for the award.

Finalists for business impact of the year – global, sponsored by Rigour Research, are the BBC, Cint, McCann Truth Central and Opinium.

Business impact of the year – UK, sponsored by Bilendi, will be contested between: Human8 and Nationwide; McCann Truth Central; Paddy Power and Jump! Innovation; PepsiCo UK, The Mix Global and Responsive Planning; The Big Window Consulting, Loop Horizon and Saga Cruise; and USS and Strat7 Jigsaw.

The award for innovation of the year, sponsored by Quirk’s Media, features Kantar, QualifyAI and Source Nine as finalists, with the winner chosen through a Dragons’ Den-style pitch to a panel of judges.

In-house team of the year, sponsored by We Live Context, features finalists the BBC, BT Group, ITV, JCDecaux, Nexus and RNIB.

Finalists for young researcher of the year – client, sponsored by Significant Insights, are Arun Chhotu at ITV, Francesca McGovern at Deliveroo and David Walmsley at Holland & Barrett.

Young researcher of the year – supplier, sponsored by Pegasus Insight, features Francesca Casaburi at Strat7 Researchbods, Jerryanne Hagan-Tetteh at ClearView Research, Diba Jedo at The Mix Global, Sam Jones at Opinium, Laura Machin at Differentology, Oliver Neal at Kantar UK, Daniela Olivera at Kantar, Hannah Over at Blue Yonder Research, Katrina Rayment at Trinity McQueen, Eric Reynolds at IFF Research, Neve Savage at Savanta, Chloe Stephenson at Tangible Branding, Cameron Stronge at Ipsos, and Courtney Townsend at OnePoll.

The main panel of judges for 2025 were: Seema Hope, global head of consumer research at The Economist; Georgina White, director of customer insight at NatWest; Patrick Alcantara, formerly of The Lending Standards Board; Claire Rainey, head of insight at Virgin Media O2; James Sallows, head of marketing effectiveness at Lego; and Neil Mortensen, director of ITV insights group.

The innovation of the year award panel were Claire Rainey, head of insight at Virgin Media O2, Sarah Ashley, Europe, Middle East and Africa senior marketing research and insights manager at Google, and Jessica Salmon, head of customer value at the BBC.

To read more about the 2025 MRS Awards, please click here.