Winners announced for the MRS awards 2023

MTM won the Research Live Agency of the Year award (sponsored by Prevision Research), for its commercial performance, commitment to inclusivity and strong values, according to the judges.

The Research Live Best Place to Work award (sponsored by I-view Studios) went to Kokoro, with IFF Research highly commended.

The winner of the Research Live Innovation of the Year (sponsored by Quirks), went to Freemavens, while Inspirient was highly commended.

Differentology won the Research Live award for Best New Venture (sponsored by Keen as Mustard), and Holland and Barrett won In-House Team of the Year (sponsored by Context+).

The award for Young Researcher of the Year – Client (sponsored by Opinium) went to Jigna Tailor of Acacium Group, while Opinium’s LaShanda Seaman and Josh Proctor of Jump! Innovation were jointly awarded Young Researcher of the Year – Supplier (sponsored by IFF Research).

Deep Blue Thinking and Checkatrade got Business Impact of the Year UK (sponsored by Cint), with the award for the Business Impact of the Year Global category (sponsored by OnePoll), going to Human8 and Philips.

In other awards, Dr Julia Ebner, Dr Christopher Kavanaugh and Professor Harvey Whitehouse from the University of Oxford won the 2023 MRS President’s Medal for their research into how online linguistic markers could help identify people with the potential to cause violent incidents.

There were two winners of the Liz Nelson Grand Prix for Social Impact, with Gallup, Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health and Global Alliance for Improved Nutrition winning for their Global Diet Quality Project to improve understanding of global malnutrition. 

The other winners of the Liz Nelson Grand Prix for Social Impact were Channel 4, Clear Channel, Backlight and The Good Side for a project exploring the challenges faced by black British entrepreneurs in setting up businesses.

Hosted by comedian Sophie Duker, the MRS Awards, sponsored by Walr, was attended by almost 1,000 research professionals at Old Billingsgate in London.

Jane Frost, chief executive at MRS, said: “The awards showcase the incredible strength of our industry, exemplifying the commercial value and social impact of good insights. Everyone involved should feel hugely proud of themselves.

“This augurs well for the future but we mustn’t let the momentum we’ve gained as an industry slide. While the uncertain economic climate will continue to test us, we must keep flying the flag for the sector by underscoring its importance and delivering our essential work to drive better decisions. As we head into another turbulent year politically and economically, this is only set to grow in significance.”

A full list of winners can be found here.