Nature Research and The Estée Lauder Companies (ELC) have launched two global awards that seek to put a spotlight on both exceptional achievements of female scientists and those working to promote greater inclusiveness. Currently, women comprise less than a third of the world’s researchers and face barriers to pursuing long-term careers that lead to senior positions in science.
 
The inaugural Nature Research Awards for Inspiring Science and for Innovating Science, in partnership with The Estée Lauder Companies, will recognize inspirational early-career female researchers and those who have worked to champion women and girls’ participation in science.
 
The Inspiring Science Award honors female scientists who have excelled in scientific discovery and have completed their PhD within the last 10 years.
 
The Innovating Science Award recognizes an individual or an organization that has led a grassroots initiative to support increased access to, or interest in, STEM subjects for girls and women around the globe.
 
Magdalena Skipper, editor-in-chief of Nature Communications and judging panel member, said: “Given the inspirational advocacy for gender equality across society we’ve recently seen, it’s more important than ever that we do more to recognize and support the achievements of women in science, and that we encourage girls and women to engage with STEM subjects and pursue scientific careers. These awards will give a global platform to some of these women who may otherwise go unheralded, as well as celebrate the efforts of the leaders—women and men – behind initiatives supporting greater equality in the sciences.”
 
Lisa Napolione, senior vice president, Global R&D, The Estée Lauder Companies and judging panel member said: “As a company founded by a pioneering woman, supporting other women pioneers is at the core of who we are. We are thrilled to partner on these inaugural awards with Nature Research, an organization that shares our values focusing on exceptional science and extraordinary scientists.
 
“We are so proud that more than half of our scientists and engineers in our global R&D teams are women. These scientists have revolutionized research in the beauty industry in a wide range of areas including cellular repair, circadian rhythm and epigenetics in skin. As we look to the future, ensuring a deep bench of research expertise among the next generation in emerging scientific areas is critical. We know first-hand that mentoring, and specifically mentoring of young women, is a strong contributor to long-term success, so we have built a scientific mentoring program into the Nature Research Awards. Our goal is to connect award recipients to scientific experts in their fields who have the unique skill set required to support and accelerate the awardee’s research progress,” adds Napolione.
The winners of the awards will be announced in October. Both winners will receive up to $10,000 to spend on initiatives linked to the award and free training from Nature Masterclasses. The Inspiring Science Award winner will also receive grants of up to $5,200 to support open access publication of their research in a Springer Nature journal, and the Innovating Science Award winner will receive up to $5,200 to support events related to their initiative.
 
Nominations for the awards opened on April 9 and will close on June 11, 2018. A longlist of 10 nominees for each award will be announced on July 24, and a shortlist of five will be announced on September 4. Full details of the awards’ criteria and nomination processes are available here.