PGR Festival 2026 - 23–29 November 2026

As a University we are proud of the achievements our postgraduate research students and research supervisors. To recognise and celebrate their success the MDC annually hosts the Postgraduate Research Excellence Awards. 

The awards celebrate student and supervisor achievements in the following categories:

• PGR Student of the Year (President’s Distinguished Achievement Award)
• Best Outstanding Research Contribution
• Best Contribution to PGR Environment
• Best Contribution to Society (Local Community)
• Best Contribution to Society (Research Impact)
• Best Contribution to Internationalisation
• Supervisor of the Year

Further details of the awards, including the criteria against which Faculty nominations are judged and the Faculty nomination process can be found in the MDC Excellence Awards Guidance 2025-26.‌

Faculty Nomination Forms:

• ‌PDAA Postgraduate Researcher of the Year Award - Nomination Form 2025-2026‌‌
• MDC PGR Excellence Awards - Nomination Form 2025-26  
• ‌MDC Excellence Awards - Supervisor of the Year Nomination Form 2025-26

Nomination and Award Timeline for the MDC/RDRD* 

(*Faculties will set their own deadlines for nominators) 

For more information about the award process, please contact mdc@manchester.ac.uk

MDC PGR Excellence Award Winners 2026

From ground-breaking research to global collaboration, this 2026 Manchester Doctoral College Excellence Awards celebrated the people making a real impact across our postgraduate research community.

The award ceremony, held on 17 June at Christie’s Bistro, recognised outstanding achievements in research, supervision, international collaboration, societal impact and creating a positive PGR experience.

Hosted by Professor Elizabeth Cartwright, Director of the Manchester Doctoral College, the ceremony brought together staff and students to celebrate excellence from across the University.

Among this year’s winners, Matthew Harris, Shashank Nitundl and Henrik Pak Hong Wong were recognised for strengthening international research partnerships, while Katie Moran and the MIB EDIA Committee received awards for their outstanding contributions to the PGR environment.

The Societal Impact awards celebrated the work of Eleanor Richards, Holly Sedgwick, Sunil Thakar and Emily Walls, with Tetyana Solovey and Rafael Sa Menezes recognised for Research Impact. 

Charles Earnshaw, Grace Dutt and Ethan Lim were honoured for Outstanding Research Output, while Cerys Manning, David Gadd and David Mills were named Supervisor of the Year.

2020/21 Research Staff Excellence Awards - Winners and Highly Commended

Many congratulations to the winners and highly commended researchers who were nominated for their outstanding achievements, impact and successes in their research. The winners and highly commended were selected by a panel comprised of academics leads for research staff and researcher development and chaired by the Associate Vice President for Research. You can read about the achievements of our winners and highly commended in Biology, Medicine and Health, Humanities and Science and Engineering.

2020/21 Research Staff Excellence Awards

The Research Staff Strategy Group (RSSG) has introduced an award scheme to recognise and celebrate the achievements of research staff. 

Definition: For all categories, a researcher is defined as someone who is either a research assistant, research associate, postdoc or research fellow (including Presidential Fellows) employed at the University on the date of the nomination being submitted.

Awards for 2020/21 were given in four categories:

Research Staff of the Year (one award per Faculty)

The nominee should be an outstanding researcher who has excelled in some significant manner, for example, a journal publication or contribution to securing a major research grant.

Best Outstanding Output by Research Staff (one award per Faculty)

The nominee should be a researcher with a first, last or sole authored high quality research output.

Best Outstanding Contribution to Research Impact by Research Staff (one award per Faculty)

The nominee can be an individual researcher or a team (a researcher must play a leading role in the team) who undertake high-quality engagement and impact activities which can be shown to have an impact on society either in the UK or internationally.  

Best Outstanding Contribution to the Research Staff Environment (one overall winner)

This nominee can be an individual researcher or a team (a researcher must play a leading role in the team) who have made a positive impact on the research environment, for example, through the organisation of events which bring together the research staff community; identifying an area of development within the research staff community and providing a solution to this.

Criteria

1. At the time of being nominated the researcher must be a member of staff at the University employed on a research contract and be categorised as a research assistant, research associate, research fellow (including Presidential Fellow) or postdoc.
2. All nominations must be made through the completion of the nomination form and all forms must be accompanied by two statements of support from either the nominee’s peers or relevant members of academic staff.
3. Self-nomination is permitted; two statements of support are still required.
4. Researchers can be nominated for more than one award but a separate nomination form must be completed for each award.