Grants, awards and prizes

The BGS has partnered with the Vivensa Foundation, previously known as the Dunhill Medical Trust, to co-fund Doctoral Training Fellowships to support front-line health professionals to undertake research relevant to age-related diseases and frailty. For deadlines and other information, click here.

The BGS Special Medal recognises a person who has made an outstanding contribution to promoting the health and wellbeing of older people. The award is intended to celebrate the work of a volunteer or someone who is not a registered healthcare professional but nevertheless has made a real difference to the care of older people. Nominations are sought for worthy candidates from our partners in the not-for-profit and public sectors including charities, voluntary sector organisations, and health and social care support agencies.  

The medal is awarded annually, traditionally at the BGS Autumn Meeting.

The most recent recipient was Angela Conlon at Oxford Health Arts Partnership: you can read her story here.

The BGS Woodhouse prize is an annual prize for the best essay on the theme of geriatric medicine submitted by a medical student in Wales. The prize consists of a free registration to attend/participate in a BGS national meeting (worth £180), and publication and promotion of the winning essay on our website. 

Submissions are invited from 4^th year medical students across Wales for this prize, which is supported by the British Geriatrics Society.

The winner will be offered free registration to attend a Welsh BGS meeting and one national BGS Spring or Autumn Meeting. They would also need to join the BGS if not already a member (the BGS provide free membership for medical students).

All submissions will receive written feedback, and well-written cases will be made available for other students to read on Learning Central (with permission).

Advice will be given on publishing / presenting any outstanding cases.

What to submit: written clinical case presentation of a patient you have seen during year 4, dealing with a topic in geriatric medicine. The case should be supported by a review of the literature, and references. There should be clear learning points from the case.

Tip: a well-written case of a common presentation / condition is more likely to win than a case about an obscure condition. You should ask your local geriatric medicine tutor for advice if unsure.

Word count: 2,000 words, excluding references

Submission date: Friday 31^st of July 2026

Judging: submissions will be marked independently by two examiners independently, and the winner will be notified by email

Please submit any queries/your entry to: susan.white3@wales.nhs.uk

Bulpitt Undergraduate Scholarship 2026

The Cardiovascular SIG of the British Geriatrics Society invites applications for the Bulpitt Undergraduate Scholarship, to be submitted by 10th July  2026. Two awards of £400 will be made.

Candidates should write a 150 word statement as to why they should be given the scholarship and how the elective will help to further their interest in geriatric medicine.

Scholarship holders will be expected to write a report following the elective.

Entries to be submitted by email to: j.gough@bgs.org.uk  (please include '2026 Bulpitt Scholarship Entry' in the subject line).

Closing date: 10th July 2026

The Dhole-Eddlestone Memorial Prize is funded by a legacy from Dr Manindra Kumar Dhole, a BGS member who died in 1977. The prize is so named to commemorate the anniversary of his marriage with Dr Eddlestone. One cash prize of £1,000 is made each year and announced on 14 January, the anniversary of the date of their marriage. Applications are not accepted. The prize goes to ‘the most deserving published work of medical research appertaining to the needs of aged people’, in practice, the paper published in Age and Ageing each calendar year which most impressed the judging panel. 

• 1980 Prof A N Davison  
• 1982 Prof F I Caird  
• 1984 Dr A N G Clarke  
• 1986 Prof A N Exton-Smith  
• 1988 Prof H M Hodkinson  
• 1990 Prof J C Brocklehurst  
• 1992 Prof M S J Pathy  
• 1994 Prof Sir John Grimley Evans  
• 1996 Prof T H D Arie  
• 1998 Prof W J MacLennan  
• 2000 Prof T B L Kirkwood  
• 2002 Prof R Tallis  
• 2004 Prof G Mulley  
• 2006 Prof G Wilcock  
• 2008 Prof Christopher Bulpitt  
• 2014 Prof Roger Francis 
• 2019: Prof Carol Jagger, for Projections of multi-morbidity in the older population in England to 2035. Press release here. 
• 2020: Dr Margriet Pol, for Everyday life after a hip fracture: what community-living older adults perceive as most beneficial for their recovery. Press release here. 
• 2021: Dr Claire Steves, for Probable delirium is a presenting symptom of COVID-19 in frail, older adults: a cohort study of 322 hospitalised and 535 community-based older adults.  Press release here. 
• 2022: Dr Sarah Richardson, for Recurrent delirium over 12 months predicts dementia: results of the Delirium and Cognitive Impact in Dementia (DECIDE) study. Press release here. 
• 2023: Prof Sasha Shepperd, for Is comprehensive geriatric assessment hospital at home a cost-effective alternative to hospital admission for older people? Press release here.
• 2024: Dr Alexander Mayhew, for Normative values for grip strength, gait speed, timed up and go, single leg balance, and chair rise derived from the Canadian longitudinal study on ageing. Press release here.

The BGS offers a limited number of Fully Funded Places (FFPs) to its events, to provide medics and healthcare professionals with limited study budgets access to educational opportunities.

FFPs for members in Category B, C and D are now available to apply for, covering the registration cost at a BGS conference. Applications are made via the event registration page, and should be made before registering for the meeting. Click here for further information about how to apply.

Who is eligible to apply for a Fully Funded Place (FFP)?

• Category B – Medics in training roles (Foundation year, IMT, registrars, clinical fellows0 and SAS grade doctors without study budget
• Category C - Nurses and AHPs, as well as Pharmacists and Physician Associates
• Category D – Undergraduate students – medics, nurse and AHPS

Applicants must

• Have been a continuous member for at least 1 year,
• Be in the appropriate membership category (B,C or D)
• Have approval from their educational or clinical supervisor and declare that there are no sources of funding available from their employer.
• Apply as early as possible ahead of the conference to ensure sufficient time for your application to be considered and (if successful) for your registration to be confirmed
• Apply when there are available FFP places.

Applicants must NOT

• Have had a BGS FFP in the past two years
• Register (and pay) in advance of the FFP application being responded to (this can be 5 days)
• Provide inaccurate information in their application. FFPs can be rejected or rescinded if any of the information supplied is found to be erroneous.

How often can I receive a FFP?

When can I apply for a FFP?

Are there restrictions on the number of FFPs available?

Applications invited for the BGS Movement Disorders SIG Essay Prize 2026

The BGS Movement Disorders SIG is inviting submissions for its Essay Prize Competition 2026

Eligibility: Open to medical, nursing and therapy students

Title of the essay: "“Parkinson’s and Health Inequality: Who Gets Diagnosed, Who Gets Missed?”

Closing date for entries: 31 May 2026

Submissions by email to: j.gough@bgs.org.uk

Prizes for top three essays: £500, £300 and £200

Word limit: 1,500 (limit for references: 20)

PLEASE NOTE:essays that are in people's own writing style tend to score more highly

We are pleased to offer grants in support of small research, quality improvement and innovation projects in the field of older people with movement disorders.

The Movement Disorder SIG research grants are eligible for National Institute for Health Research (NIHR) non-commercial partner status. Being an NIHR non-commercial partner brings several benefits such as local Clinical Research Network (CRN) support. Partner status also enables decisions about eligibility for Network support/ adoption to be reached more quickly for the studies the BGS funds. Once confirmed eligible for CRN support, these funded studies will be included in the NIHR Clinical Research Network (CRN) Portfolio. Such studies have access to NHS infrastructure for research, training and ISRCTN (a simple numeric system for the unique identification of randomised controlled trials worldwide) registration as well as NHS Service Support and Research Management and Governance.

Support via the Clinical Research Network provides:

• Access to a local network of dedicated skilled research support staff including research nurses and other allied health professionals, who can help identify eligible patients, arrange consent to participate in the study, monitor and follow up patients as they progress through the study.
• Support to ensure that a study can be successfully delivered in NHS settings, including pharmacy, imaging and pathology services and the possibility of securing protected time for NHS staff to conduct research.
• Access to experienced Research Management and Governance staff who can advise on governance aspects of undertaking clinical research in the NHS and facilitate the rapid approval of a study through the NIHR Coordinated System for gaining NHS Permission (NIHR CSP).

The value of the grant awarded shall generally be in the region of £100-£2000.

Conditions of the award

1. The grant will be awarded twice yearly at the discretion of the BGS Movement Disorder SIG committee.

2. The application deadlines shall be 31 July and 31 December annually.

3. The value of the grant shall be at the discretion of the BGS Movement Disorder SIG and the adjudication process is final.

4. The grant shall be used solely for the purpose set out in the application process.

5. Publication costs should not be included in your application as they will not be funded.

6. The applicant must be a member of the British Geriatrics Society Movement Disorder Special Interest Group

7. The applicant must agree to dissemination of their work by presenting their project at a BGS MDS conference following completion of the project.

8. Acknowledgement of the BGS Movement Disorder SIG Research Grant must be made in any publication and/or presentation.

9. The applicant agrees to submit a short blog article (250 – 300 words) outlining the benefits gained from the grant.

Full details and the application form are available from Joanna Gough, BGS Scientific Officer at j.gough@bgs.org.uk

The Rising Star awards are awarded each year and are a prestigious acknowledgement of an individual’s leadership potential, with a prize of £250 attached to each award. The categories are:

• Rising Star Award for Research (x2 - see below)
• Rising Star Award for Clinical Quality

One research award is for medical practitioners. The second award is for the wider multi-professional workforce (Nurses, AHPs or Pharmacists). 

The clinical quality award is for quality improvement work that demonstrates improved care for older people with frailty, and is open to both medics and the wider multi-professional workforce (Nurses, AHPs or Pharmacists).

Applications typically open in August and close in October each year. For more information, please click here.

We encourage submissions from those at the start of their career. This includes medical, nurse and AHP students as well as Foundation Year, IMT and Clinical Fellows.

Spring and Autumn national meetings (3-day conferences)

There are several cash prizes at the BGS Spring and Autumn national conferences awarded to the best platform and best posters. There are also prizes for work submitted by Nurses and AHPs (the Eva Huggins Prize of £200) GPs in training (£200) and Doctoral Researchers (The Richard Dodds Memorial prize, a framed certificate and the chance to present your work at a subsequent Autumn or Spring  BGS conference in the Research session).

Special Interest Group meetings

At BGS Special Interest Group (SIG) conferences there are prizes for the best platform presentation and best poster. The prize is a complimentary registration for a national BGS Spring or Autumn conference (equivalent to £180 - £270). This should be taken up within one year. You will be invited to present your work here in the 'posters presented elsewhere' section.

Devolved Nation meetings and England Region meetings

At BGS Northern Ireland, Scotland, Wales and England Region meetings there are prizes for the best platform presentation and best poster. The prize is a complimentary registration for a national BGS Spring or Autumn conference (equivalent to £180 - £270). This should be taken up within one year. You will be invited to present your work here in the 'posters presented elsewhere' section. 

_{*Those at consultant level or equivalent are not eligible for prizes}