Award for Innovation in Practice

Applications/nominations are now open.

This award will be open to pilot programmes or projects of any size showing particular innovation.

This award can be made to psychologists at any stage in their careers.

The award will confer a commemorative certificate which will be presented to the recipient at an appropriate society conference.

Nomination criteria

Nominees for the Award for Innovation in Practice should be:

• Current (or recently retired) practitioners in any area of professional applied psychology
• Members of the BPS

Nominations are not limited to UK residents.

Nominations can be for an individual or team of psychologists.

Self-nominations will be accepted. However, an extra referee will be required.

Making a Nomination

Nominators for the Award for Innovation in Practice:

• can be members or non-members
• based in the UK or internationally
• must complete an application form to show how the candidate meets the criteria.
• must provide the names and e-mail addresses of two potential referees (three for self-nominees), to include at least one current/former work colleague of the candidate, who may be an employer and not necessarily a psychologist (the nominator should not be a referee) and at least one person with expertise in the field of the innovation.
• should assume that the judges have no prior knowledge of the person and project and provide clear information and evidence of how they meet the criteria.
• should use active language, and where the work is carried out as part of a team, make it clear what the individual contributed and how this differed from others.

Nominations for the 2025 award will open soon.

Assessment Criteria

Nominees should have

• Demonstrated Professional Practice while being instrumental in the development of an innovative project.
• Invested in Psychology by improving psychological knowledge and understanding.
• Impacted on people, organisations or communities.
• Involvement in equality, diversity and inclusion, practice and challenging the barriers that marginalised communities face in access to psychology

This may include

• An innovative contribution to the development of what has proved to be an effective therapeutic technique.
• A major contribution towards developing a new innovative psychological service.
• Developing and implementing an innovative selection system in a major organisation that increased the validity, utility and fairness of selection.
• Leadership of an initiative that has resulted in policy relating to services such as education, employee selection, decisions on parole, or care of the elderly becoming based on sound psychological principles.
• A pioneering contribution to the development of a local psychological service which has for instance saved disadvantaged children from a life of crime in a specific local area or provided a model for best practice in dealing with the victims of violence.
• Involvement in equality, diversity and inclusion forums, groups, practice and research in furthering best practice and inclusivity

Projects referred to should be within the last 5 years.

Judging

Nominations will be considered by the Practice Board at the first meeting in each year.

Judging will be made using the following scoring criteria:

Demonstrated Professional Practice

• Demonstrated best practices including methodological rigour and ethics
• Showed personal commitment
• Creative and original achievement
• Pioneered/demonstrated innovation in practice

Invested in Psychology

• Improved psychological understanding/knowledge
• Collaborated with other professionals

Impacted on people/organisations/communities

• Collaboration with the public/clients/experts by experience
• Positive impact on individuals/groups and/or communities
• National and/or international impact

Equality Diversity and Inclusion

• Challenged social inequalities (in relation to gender, race, ethnic origin, nationality, religion, sexual orientation, disability or age)
• Has embedded EDI into their own work

Each member of the Board will score each criterion between 1 and 7 (where 1 = weak, 4/5 = Good and 7 = exceptional).

The scores will be aggregated and averaged for each nominee.

A score of at least 60, with at least 20 scored in the Demonstrating Innovation section, will be required to confer an award.

The Board may award up to 3 innovation in practice awards or equally may decide not to make an award in any given year.

Conflicts of interest

Nominators must declare all personal and professional conflicts of interest – e.g. if nominating a spouse/partner or other relation.

Conflict of interest will not prevent acceptance of the nomination but will be borne in mind by the awarding panel when considering the award.

If there is found to be a conflict of interest that has not been declared, the nomination will be withdrawn.

How to apply

Please follow the link below to access and complete the application form.

Submit an application now

The deadline for applications/nominations is 10 October 2024.

Please note: we cannot accept late nominations.

Contact us

If you encounter any issues when completing the application form, or require any further clarification, please email [email protected].