Honours and awards

A chance to recognise outstanding achievement

When someone goes above and beyond expectations, they deserve recognition. Our honours and awards celebrate the exceptional contributions of veterinary surgeons, veterinary nurses, and others who have made a real difference to animal health and welfare.

You can nominate someone – or yourself – for an award through our simple nomination process. Here’s everything you need to know about what the awards recognise and how to submit a nomination.

Nominations for the 2026 awards close at 5pm on Wednesday 7 January 2026.

If you have any questions about the process, please contact Kieran Thakrar, Executive Assistant to the CEO, at [email protected].

Celebrating impact across veterinary practice

Our awards recognise people whose achievements far exceed what is normally expected,  even from highly skilled professionals. Whether they have advanced veterinary medicine, improved animal welfare, or strengthened the reputation of the profession, they have earned recognition.

We celebrate a wide range of achievements. Recipients might have made groundbreaking contributions to veterinary science, shown exceptional compassion in their daily work, or gone above and beyond to support their colleagues and communities. 

New for 2026: the Collaboration Award

We’ve launched a new Collaboration Award  for the 2026 awards cycle to celebrate teamwork and partnership. The award reflects the ‘Stronger together’ theme of our 2025–2029 Strategic Plan, which highlights collaboration as a core value for achieving the best outcomes.

Making a nomination

Making a nomination is straightforward but we need specific information to help our Council make informed decisions.

For each nomination, please provide:

• The nominee's name and the award category
• At least two supporting statements (maximum 250 words each)
• Each supporter's name, job title, relationship to the nominee, and the date

We recommend keeping your nomination confidential from the nominee. This helps protect their dignity if they are not selected.

You can submit only one nomination per year and support only one nomination per award category.

Can you nominate yourself?  

Yes! We accept self-nominations for most awards, because we recognise that exceptional work doesn't always get the recognition it deserves.

However, self-nominations are not allowed for the Queen's Medal, Honorary Associateship, or VN Golden Jubilee Award.

If you are nominating yourself:

• Write about yourself in the third person (instead of “I developed a new programme for vet nurses,” write “Jane Doe developed a new training programme for vet nurses.”)
• Provide at least two supporting statements from other people. Ensure at least one supporter isn't a close colleague, friend, or family member.

What happens next?

After the nomination deadline, our Officer Team reviews all submissions and presents them to Council in March 2026.

The RCVS Council has complete discretion over the awards. If they feel no nominee meets the required standard for a particular award, they may choose not to present it that year.

We'll contact successful nominees directly in March. The awards ceremony takes place at RCVS Day in July.