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The Vivensa Foundation is taking nominations for its 2027 Vivensa Academy Excellence Awards, three flexible awards of £120,000 each for people and teams doing outstanding work to help people in the UK age well. You can nominate yourself, a colleague or a team, and the deadline is 5pm on Friday 30 October 2026.
The Vivensa Foundation (formerly the Dunhill Medical Trust) is one of the few UK funders focused squarely on ageing, and dementia researchers have done well out of these awards. Recent winners include Professor Nathan Davies (Queen Mary University of London), 2026 Senior Leader, and Dr Mahmoud Bukar Maina (University of Sussex), one of two 2026 Rising Stars, whose work tackles the genetic ancestry gap in Alzheimer’s research. Last year’s Team Achievement Award went to the Manchester Urban Ageing Research Group.
What you get
Each award is worth £40,000 a year for three years, paid to the award-holder’s organisation and spent at their discretion. It’s deliberately flexible. The Foundation suggests uses such as running events and networks, funding internships and placements, small seed-funding pots for others, mentoring and training, public involvement work, EDI activity, equipment and cross-sector secondments. What it won’t do is cover salaries for staff already in post or routinely extend fixed-term postdoc contracts.
Winners are announced at the Foundation’s Annual Symposium in April 2027, and are expected to speak there and to take part in Academy activities over the life of the award.
The three categories
Rising Star is for early to mid-career researchers with between three and ten years of postdoctoral experience, allowing for career breaks and the impact of COVID-19. You don’t need a permanent post, but if you win without one, your organisation will need to confirm your contract runs for at least the first 12 months of the award.
Senior Leader is for full Professors in permanent posts. Honorary Professors are considered if they are active in the research community at an eligible organisation. If you’re not quite there yet, our piece on academic promotion criteria covers what it takes.
Team Achievement recognises a significant, sustainable and evidenced outcome delivered for the first time within the last five years by a multidisciplinary or multi-professional team. Teams can span academia, health and care, the voluntary sector, industry, government and people with lived experience, and ideally mix career stages. Nominations centred on a single PI or research group won’t be eligible, and the form must set out what each team member contributed.
Who can apply
These awards are only open to members of the Vivensa Academy, and that rule has teeth. Nominees must be Academy members with a profile on the member directory. For self-nominations to the Rising Star and Senior Leader awards, your supporter must be a member too. If you’re nominating someone else, you both need to be members. If you haven’t joined yet, do it now rather than in the last week of October.
Nominees must be based at a UK university, an NHS or Health and Social Care organisation, or a research organisation eligible for UKRI funding. Funded activity must benefit people or organisations in the UK. The Foundation doesn’t fund work with a specific focus on cancer. You can only be considered for one category per round.
What makes a strong nomination
Panels look well beyond the research record. Alongside excellence in ageing-related research, they want clear evidence of capacity building and mentorship, a positive research culture, meaningful involvement of older people, EDI, multidisciplinary working, and an understanding of the environmental impact of your work. Every nomination also needs an indicative three-year plan for spending the £120k, showing how it would benefit people beyond your own group.
The Foundation publishes feedback from last year’s round, and ran a webinar in September with tips on building a clear, credible and compelling case. The recording and the guidance notes are on its website, and both are worth your time before you start writing. Our podcast on grant writing tips from awardees and reviewers is useful too.
One detail to note: any use of generative or agentic AI in preparing a nomination must be disclosed on the form, including the tools and what they were used for. It doesn’t affect assessment.
How to apply
Nominations go through the Foundation’s online Grants Management Portal. PDF versions of the forms are available for planning, with separate versions for self-nominations and nominating someone else. Shortlisted nominees will hear by 18 December 2026 and must be free for interview on a fixed date, in London or on Zoom: 12 January 2027 for Team Achievement, 13 January for Rising Star and 14 January for Senior Leader. There’s no flexibility on those dates.
Questions about the awards go to grants@vivensafoundation.org.uk, and questions about Academy membership to academy@vivensafoundation.org.uk.
Submit nominations by 5pm, Friday 30 October 2026.
Alzheimer's Association
