MRS Awards: a Good Start, for a Walnut

ICM Unlimited - now part of newly created Walnut Unlimited - carried off the Grand Prix at the annual MRS Awards Dinner in London last night. Among the other winners were Streetbees, for Innovation; and C Space and MTM as Best Agencies over and under £20m, respectively.

The black tie event was hosted by comedian and 'Nina is not OK' author Shappi Khorsandi, and took place for the first time at Old Billingsgate.

The President's Medal was awarded to Paragon Partnerships: UN SDG Action Campaign & Kantar Public. The Paragon Partnership is a not-for-profit collaboration of research agencies, clients and associations aiming to harness insight that will help tackle the 17-point plan of the UN Global Goals - based around ending poverty, combating climate change, and fighting injustice and inequality around the world. The award was given for the work of the UN SDG Action Campaign, enabling countries to consistently measure their accomplishment of UN Sustainable Development Goals and provide evidence of effectiveness for the first time.

Momo Amjad and James Crouch won the Young Researcher of the Year Award, which recognises young ambassadors in the sector.

Winners in the competitive scrap for Business Impact of the Year 2018 were the new Formula One insight team for their partnership with Flamingo, delivering insight into its wider customer base and directly enabling strong business growth; and the Formula One team also won the award for Best In-house Research Team.

As above, ICM Unlimited was awarded the Grand Prix Award for Greatest Impact - this recognises one winner across all categories that stands out above the rest and 'best demonstrates the impact research can have when properly commissioned, delivered, designed and acted upon'. The firm's paper on Measuring the socio-economic impact of changes to PIP eligibility criteria for people living with MS is described as 'a milestone for UK healthcare charities, giving a voice to patients and their families'. Walnut Unlimited also won the awards for Public Policy / Social Research and Breakthrough Business of the Year, and Jane Rudling (pictured), MD of the one-year-old business said: 'To be recognised with three awards including Best Breakthrough Business is truly the best birthday present that Walnut Unlimited could have asked for. We will continue to work hard to deliver cutting-edge, award winning research for years to come and build on our tremendous success in 2019 and beyond'.

MRS CEO Jane Frost comments: 'It is more important than ever, in these times of economic and political uncertainty, to demonstrate the relevance of research and the power of insight to make sense of the world around us, underpin truth and generate change. The MRS awards are always a proud night for me and this year's range of entries, from charities, government, business, sport, media and entertainment have once again showcased everything that is brilliant about our sector and the far-reaching impact it has on people's lives. There may well be stormy weather ahead, but I am confident we have the talent and the tools to navigate whatever 2019 brings'.

Web site: www.mrs.org.uk .

All articles 2006-23 written and edited by Mel Crowther and/or Nick Thomas, 2024- by Nick Thomas, unless otherwise stated.