Sussex Awards 2026 open for nominations!
Posted on behalf of: Internal Communications
Last updated: Wednesday, 28 January 2026
The Materials Physics Group win the Research and Innovation Impact category at last year's award ceremony
The annual Sussex Awards are now open for nominations. The awards, which launched last year bringing together the previous Research and Education Awards, and adding new award categories, are designed to recognise the brilliant work of our professional services and academic staff and our postgraduate researchers, along with groups of staff and students. Nominations are open until Sunday 15 February.
There are 17 broad categories covering education and students, global and civic engagement, research and innovation, and other areas, providing opportunities to nominate colleagues across the many various roles in our community. Two new categories have been added this year – one for Scholarship and one to recognise our community of technicians.
You can nominate individuals or groups of staff in almost every category, and postgraduate researchers are eligible in many categories too. Students can nominate staff in several categories, and we will be promoting the awards widely to our student community.
Judging panels will review all the nominations, and shortlisted nominees will be invited to an awards ceremony at the Attenborough Centre for the Creative Arts on Monday 27 April, where the winners will be revealed. All nominees will be informed of their nomination, but not who nominated them.
The categories are:
Education and student life
- Inclusive Education
- Education for Employability and World Readiness
- Education and Student Life: Global and Civic Engagement and Public Service
- Collaborative Learning and Innovation
- Scholarship
Research and innovation
- Research and Innovation Excellence
- Open Research
- Research and Innovation Culture
- Research and Innovation Impact
Education and research
- Postgraduate Researcher Support
- Technician Award
Global and civic engagement
- Global Engagement
- Civic Engagement
Sussex people
- Diverse and Inclusive Sussex
- Contribution to Campus Life
Transforming Sussex
- Environmental Sustainability
- Institutional Improvement and Transformation
You can see the full category definitions and make your nominations on the awards Staff Hub page.
Nominations won’t take long and you can nominate multiple times for different people, but please don’t enter the same nomination in different categories – choose the most relevant.
Nominate now – the deadline for nominations is midnight on Sunday 15 February.