Eligibility

  • Eligibility for candidature is restricted to persons who are usually resident in Ireland.
  • Candidates must be currently making a distinguished, demonstrable, and internationally recognised scholarly contribution to their field.
  • The work underpinning this scholarly contribution will have been undertaken while candidates have been working in Ireland.
  • Candidates are expected to be research active at the time of nomination.
  • Please note: serving Officers of the Royal Irish Academy are not eligible for candidature.

Who can nominate?

A proposer and a seconder are required. Either the proposer or the seconder must be a:

  • Member of the Royal Irish Academy, or
  • Honorary member of the Royal Irish Academy, or
  • Current member of a RIA Multidisciplinary Committee, or
  • Head of an institution designated under the Higher Education Act (2022) or a Higher Education Institution based in Northern Ireland.
  • Please note: serving Officers of the Royal Irish Academy are not eligible to nominate.

For more details on the Gold Medals process, please refer to the Terms of Reference.

Diversity

The RIA seeks to ensure greater gender, disciplinary, institutional, and overall diversity in all of its activities. In the event that, at the close of the call for nominations, the RIA is not satisfied that the nominations received are fully representative of the diversity, and especially the gender diversity, of the field, the nomination process may be reopened. Should the RIA continue to have concerns in this regard the assessment of nominations will not proceed, and the Gold Medal will not be awarded.

Contact

Please email awards@ria.ie with all queries.

Data Protection

All personal data supplied with a nomination for the Gold Medals is used for the purpose of peer-review and competitive assessment for this award only. Please refer to the Royal Irish Academy Gold Medal Privacy Notice.

The 2025 RIA Gold Medals are sponsored by AIB.