Each year, the SSA presents the Impact Prize to a person or team whose work has had a strong public-facing impact. Applications have now closed for the 2024 prize. Check back in early 2025 for the next opportunity to apply.
About the prize
Have you talked about your research on TV, or in local or national media? Has your work influenced government policy or treatment provision? Have you collaborated with policymakers, treatment providers, or people who use drugs? We’re looking for people whose research has made a difference.
At the SSA we know how important it is for high-quality research to influence the world around us. This issue is crucial in a field where harms can accumulate around already vulnerable people.
One of the Society’s strategic aims is “to harness and communicate the evidence base to inform policy and practice”, and the Impact Prize supports researchers who share our enthusiasm for this.
In 2024, the SSA awarded the Impact Prize to Dr Sharon Cox, who has made important contributions to the field of addiction, especially in the area of health inequalities in smoking cessation interventions.
Information about the application process
You should include, and provide examples of, recent work that has had an impact, its relevance for the field of addiction, and how it meets the aims of the SSA. Examples of relevant work might include, but are not limited to:
- altmetric outputs
- co-production that includes people with lived experience of addiction
- impact on clinical practice
- policy work
- public engagement
- science communication
Information on eligibility and conflicts of interest
You are ineligible for this prize if you are an employee of the alcohol, cannabis, gambling, nicotine, pharmaceutical, or tobacco industries. This exclusion also applies if you are an employee of an Industry Social Aspect Organisation*.
You are ineligible for this prize if you have received funding of any kind, either directly from, or through representatives of, the alcohol, cannabis (except pharmaceutical), gambling, nicotine (except pharmaceutical), or tobacco industries. This exclusion also applies if you have received funding from an Industry Social Aspect Organisation*.
To be eligible, you must provide details about all potential conflicts of interest when requested. This information will be used to inform decision-making and applications may be rejected if the SSA deems there to be a risk of bias, ethical concerns, or a risk to the reputation of the SSA.
*Industry Social Aspect Organisations are those that are funded by addictive product industries – sometimes through secondary organisations – that often have a stated purpose to reduce the harms of those addictive products.
