The Merck Young Scientist Award, an initiative by leading science and technology company Merck, has returned for its third edition in 2023. This honour, awarded annually to promising young researchers in India, shines a spotlight on their outstanding contributions to life sciences.
The race is on, with applications open until August 16, 2023. This year, Merck plans to recognise ten trailblazing minds for their transformative contributions to the advancement of human knowledge.
To qualify for the award, researchers must be affiliated with a research institute, hold less than ten years of post-PhD research experience, and be based in India. The event’s climax will be the awards ceremony on November 24, 2023.
This year, the award will comprise three categories: Biological Sciences, Chemical Sciences, and an exceptional category devoted to Sustainability Research. The inclusion of a sustainability-focused category underscores the mounting importance of environmental sustainability in modern scientific research.
This year, the award structure will be tweaked to include ten winners in total: two each in the biological and chemical sciences fields, one in sustainability research, and five runners-up. The award winners will receive a cash prize of INR 350,000, while the runners-up will be rewarded with INR 100,000.
Merck Life Science’s Head of Science and Lab Solutions, Mr Dhananjay Singh, highlighted the pivotal role of sustainability in the field of scientific research. He expressed eagerness to uncover the groundbreaking research that will inevitably emerge from this year’s participants.
The judgement panel is led by Dr Anurag Agrawal, Dean of Ashoka University, Dr Radha Rangarajan, Director of CSIR-CDRI, and Dr Srinivas Reddy, Director of CSIR-IICT. They will be assisted by an eminent panel of ten researchers from various prestigious institutions across India.
The Merck Young Scientist Award has witnessed overwhelming support in the past, attracting more than 2,000 registrations from nearly 1,000 institutes across India. With this growing interest, this year’s award is set to be bigger than ever. For more details about the award and the application process, please visit the official website.
