We were delighted to present the 2025 Vivensa Academy Excellence Awards at our Annual Symposium on 29th April 2025. Professor Vicki Goodwin (University of Exeter) was awarded the ‘Senior Leader’ Excellence Award and Dr Toby Ellmers (Imperial College London) ‘Rising Star’ Excellence Award.
The Excellence Awards celebrate outstanding researchers in an ageing-related field who exemplify our research principles: a commitment to capacity building, multidisciplinarity, equity, diversity and inclusion (EDI) and patient, carer and public involvement and engagement (PPIE). We acknowledge individuals who are dedicated to enhancing research culture at all stages of their career and strive to translate their work into practice. The award-holders will receive £120K of flexible funding over three years to support their research-related activities and allow them to pursue career development opportunities beyond the scope of conventionally supported projects.
I am absolutely ecstatic to receive the Rising Star Award. This funding will allow me to maximise the translational impact of my work, through co-designing meaningful resources that truly help older people recover and stay active following a fall. I am also excited to use these funds to support individuals from diverse professional and academic backgrounds to start a career in ageing-related research, and to establish multidisciplinary networks where basic science and applied researchers can engage with, and learn from, each other.
Dr Toby Ellmers, ‘Rising Star’ Excellence Award holder 2024/25
I’m delighted to be the first physiotherapist to receive the Excellence Award. It shows the art of the possible for those who come from different backgrounds and will hopefully give others the courage to step out of their comfort zone. I’m looking forward to using the funding to support early career researchers, in particular allied health professionals and nurses, through bursaries, support for patient, public and community engagement and learning opportunities to develop their clinical academic careers to become future leaders in ageing research.
Professor Vicki Goodwin, ‘Senior Leader’ Excellence Award holder 2024/25
The call for nominations opened in September 2024 and all eligible applications were carefully reviewed by the shortlisting / interview panel (and you can find the feedback on the nominations from this round here). Following the interviews, Professor Goodwin and Dr Ellmers were recommended for the awards by the panel, resulting in a success rate of 33% for each award category this round. The shortlisting and interviews were chaired by Susan Kay, CEO of the Vivensa Foundation, with the panel comprising:
- Professor Deborah Dunn-Walters (University of Surrey and Chair of our Board of Trustees)
- Professor Bernard Conway (University of Strathclyde and Trustee)
- Professor Ala Szczepura (Coventry University and Research Grants Committee member)
- Professor Stuart Gray (University of Glasgow and Research Grants Committee member)
- Professor Ilaria Bellantuono (University of Sheffield, Chair of the Vivensa Academy Steering Group and 2024 ‘Senior Leader’ Excellence Award holder)
- Dr Sanjay Thakrar (Director of Research at the Vivensa Foundation)
We’re building a cohort of leaders whose style of leadership is one to which others can aspire in order to create a research culture which attracts the brightest and the best to work with purpose.
Susan Kay, CEO of the Vivensa Foundation
The panel was particularly impressed by Dr Ellmers’ and Professor Goodwin’s unwavering commitment to capacity building and mentoring. Both presented strong plans for the award, which not only extended beyond their own research teams and institutions, but also aligned with the Foundation’s principles. Their proposals highlighted initiatives, such as patient involvement programmes, the establishment of multidisciplinary networks, and funding opportunities designed to support and empower individuals from underrepresented groups and professions in academia, enabling them to advance their careers in the field of ageing-related research. If you’re interested in learning more about our new award holders, be sure to keep an eye out for our upcoming spotlight story on Dr Ellmers and Professor Goodwin.
The Excellence Awards are open to members of the Vivensa Academy, an inclusive network of researchers and community innovators, which offers support to individuals in ageing-related research and those providing support and services to older people. The panel looked for candidates who would act as ambassadors for the Academy and shared our approach to collaboration and community-building.
Success in bringing about systems change is increasingly about purposefully assembling multi-disciplinary and multi-professional teams so we need leaders who are skilled in working across boundaries.
Professor Deborah Dunn-Walters, Chair of the Vivensa Foundation’s Board of Trustees and Awards Panel Member
Nominations for the 2025/26 awards will open later this year with an additional Team category – so, if you think you might be a Rising Star or Senior Leader in ageing-related research (or you know somebody who is) or you have or know of a team that deserves recognition, do consider joining the Academy and look out for future announcements on our website .