Honours & Awards

A chance to recognise outstanding achievement

The public expects veterinary professionals to meet high standards. Sometimes, however, individuals far exceed expectation, and we feel this ought to be recognised.

Ready to make a nomination?

The nomination period for RCVS Awards 2026 will be opening in autumn 2025, with the launch of a new Collaboration Award, joining our suite of existing awards recognising the breadth of veterinary endeavour. 

Background

Our Honours & Awards recognise and celebrate a breadth of achievement across the veterinary world and encompass, for example, veterinary surgeons, veterinary nurses and laypeople who have contributed to the health and welfare of animals, to the veterinary profession as a whole or public health.

If you know someone whose achievements are outstanding and who has worked above-and-beyond the call of duty in the fields of veterinary medicine or science, or related areas, you can use the RCVS Honours & Awards to try and ensure that they are considered for wider recognition.

Below is a video featuring footage of and interviews with some of the 2023 Honours & Awards recipients at Royal College Day. 

How to nominate

Nomination forms are available to download from each of the award pages listed above.

Please ensure that you submit two additional supporting statements within the nomination form.

At least one of these must be from someone who is not a close working colleague of the person nominated, to demonstrate breadth of support.

The supporting statements should be no longer than 250 words long and should include:

• The name of the nominee
• The award/honour for which they are being proposed
• Supporter’s job title
• Relationship to the nominee
• Date

Please note

It is important to remember that:

• Nominees should not know about their nomination, to avoid disappointment in the event that their nomination is unsuccessful.
• Nominators and supporters should only be involved in one nomination per year.
• No correspondence will be entered into following Council’s decision on the nominations and Council’s decision is final.

Self-nominations

We now welcome self-nominations for our Honours & Awards, with the exception of the Queen’s Medal, Honorary Associateship and the VN Golden Jubilee Award, which must still involve a third-party nomination.

Self-nominators must fulfil all the same criteria for the award in question as those who are being nominated by a third party and must also produce at least two supporting statements for their nomination.

Self-nominators must fill out the form in the third person in order to avoid bias,and refer to themselves by their own name and pronouns rather than using 'I', 'me', etc.

Supporting statements can be from MsRCVS, RVNs or laypeople, but these cannot be close relatives, including spouses.