The Materials Today Agents of Change Awards

The Materials Today Agents of Change (MTAOC) awards program provides two grants of up to $10,000 annually to initiatives and programs that foster a more inclusive research environment in the materials science community.

Jointly funded by the Materials Today Family of journals and the Elsevier Foundation, the awards demonstrate Materials Today’s long-term commitment to creating a more equitable workplace for materials scientists. We believe that a research community with a robust range of perspectives and backgrounds serves as a solid foundation for scientific advances in the field.

Nominations are now open

We are currently inviting nominations for the 2026 Materials Today Agents of Change Awards.

Deadline

The deadline to submit all nominations is September 30, 2026.

Award prize

Two awards are available. Each winner will receive a cash grant of up to $10,000 USD.

Submit a nomination

To submit a nomination, fill out and submit the online nomination formopens in new tab/window.

Both self-nominations and nominations submitted by third parties are welcome. All nominations must be submitted by September 30, 2026.

Please note that we unfortunately cannot accept nominations where the nominee is:

• Younger than the age of majority in their country or region of residence

• A government official

• A resident in Crimea, Cuba, Iran, Syria, North Korea, Sudan, or Russia

Nomination evaluation

The Materials Today Family of Journals team will review all nominations and select a shortlist of top Nominees based on the following:

• An overview of the initiative - what it intends to achieve and what it has achieved so far (if applicable)

• Key need the initiative addresses (incl. any data and/or initial insights sources used to identify the need)

• Target audience

• How the award money would help to support the initiative

• Proposed budget

• Proposed timeline for implementation

• A sustainability plan outlining how the project will continue beyond the initial grant (incl. data sources and/or initial insights that will be used to evaluate the initiative)

• A supporting statement from a nominator outlining the potential impact of the initiative and why the grant of the award would be significant for the initiative.

The shortlist of top Nominees will then be reviewed by the panel of judges based on the above criteria. The panel judges will select up to two winners from the shortlist on or about November 22, 2026.

Resources

• Terms & Conditionsopens in new tab/window

• Panel of judgesopens in new tab/window

Previous winners

The BioProducts Institute (BPI) at the University of British Columbia is launching the Indigenous Outreach Program, which aims to foster connections with Indigenous communities and integrate Indigenous knowledge into biobased innovation. The program focuses on increasing Indigenous youth participation in STEM by addressing systemic barriers through two key annual events: a two-day Outreach Program for Indigenous high-school students, bringing in 10–20 Indigenous students from remote communities to BPI for lab tours, hands-on workshops, mentorship, and the Half-Day Gathering during BPI’s Community Day, a collaborative event where Indigenous leaders, researchers, students, and stakeholders engage in mutual learning. This award will the support the transportation, accommodation, meals, lab tours and workshops costs laying the groundwork for lasting partnerships with Indigenous communities.

We are deeply honored to receive the 2024 Agents of Change award from the Elsevier Foundation and Materials Today. This recognition underscores our commitment to empowering Indigenous youth through hands-on STEM experiences and mentorship, fostering their voices and perspectives in the future of biobased materials innovation. By creating inclusive pathways, we aim to inspire the next generation of Indigenous leaders, whose knowledge and contributions are essential to shaping a more sustainable and diverse scientific community.

- Orlando Rojas

BME UNITE is a movement founded in 2020 to enhance racial and ethnic diversity in academia, now comprising around 480 faculty members nationwide. Its first major initiative brought attention to racial funding disparities at the National Institutes of Health (NIH), highlighted in the Cell Press (2021) paper “Fund Black Scientists”, and led to the creation of the Genentech Research Awards Program, which provides funding to underrepresented minority BME faculty.

BME UNITE has partnered with the Biomedical Engineering Society (BMES) to help fellows prepare for the Meet-the-Faculty Candidate Session, which connects faculty candidates with department chairs and hiring committees. However, many fellows lack the financial resources to attend BMES meetings. This award will support conference registration and travel costs, increasing the program’s impact and supporting fellows' transitions into faculty roles.

This award will support undergraduate and graduate students from Latin America and Ecuadorian Universities to participate in the fifth edition of the Nano-Science Summer School@Yachay (NSSY24). The event, which will feature talks by world-class scientists, will be held on the Galapagos Islands for the third year running: a deliberate choice due to the location’s historical significance in the advancement of modern science. The hope is to continue expanding the school and establish its reputation as a prominent annual gathering for a diverse range of students.

With your sponsorship, we will be able to enhance the conference experience by offering valuable resources, facilitating networking opportunities, and fostering an environment conducive to collaborative research and dialogue. Your support directly contributes to the advancement of knowledge and the growth of our community.

- Charlotte Berrezueta

In many social settings, mental health is still considered a taboo topic. For example, according to Dr Chaudhary, in the scientific community, researchers are often expected to maintain a stoic demeanour. To combat this, he started the Happy Mental Health Club in October 2020 during the COVID-19 lockdown. The club showcases the diverse talents of materials science students and addresses mental health stigma through online sessions and international conferences. There is a particular emphasis on supporting underrepresented groups and breaking down social barriers to gender and LGBTQIA++ equality in research. The MTAOC award supports the running of the Happy Mental Health Club, along with awareness programs.

The Women+ of Color Project (WOCP) was born out of the need to see more Black, Native/Indigenous, Latina/x women+ in academia especially in STEM fields like Math, Physics, Materials Science, Planetary Science, or any other physical science disciplines. WOCP provides an online classroom focused solely on how to apply to graduate school and what admissions committees are looking for, providing resources to women+ of color who may not have access to this information.

The three awardees have observed throughout their career that female researchers often face a major hurdle when it comes to making the first step onto the academic ladder and rising further up in the hierarchy later on – a lack of professional role confidence. The Professional role confidence of female scientists initiative was established to develop a series of events to overcome this impediment to success, with the vision to help implement a true culture of gender equality and to achieve a real gender balance among the next generation of materials scientists.