Ipsos, Population Services International and Matchboxology were awarded the newly launched Liz Nelson Award for social impact, which celebrates the positive impact of research beyond the sector. The winning project, personally selected by Dr Liz Nelson, examined men’s fear of HIV testing in South Africa.

The MRS president’s medal for 2019, presented by Jan Gooding, president of MRS and chair of Stonewall, was awarded to went to Professor Nic Cheeseman, Professor Gabrielle Lynch, Professor Justin Willis, and Dr Susan Dodsworth, for their work with African institutions to understand election manipulation strategies.

This year’s Grand Prix for greatest impact, awarded to one winner across all the awards categories, was taken by Christopher Graves and Jon Puleston, Kantar Profiles Division, for ‘The real why & the hidden who: deploying multiple behavioural science lenses to render a clearer picture of individuals at scale’.

In the Research Live awards, Jigsaw Research was named Global Agency of the Year, with Kadence International highly commended for the award.

Business impact of the year – global – was awarded to BBC World Service, while Populus & BT took the UK award for business impact of the year.

Opinium Research took the prize for best place to work, and the agency’s Jack Tadman was named joint Young Researcher of the Year, alongside Katherine Nicholls of Natives.

Taking the award for best in-house team was NEC Group, while the breakthrough business of the year award went to Differentology.

This year’s Research Live award for best innovation went to Lumen Research for combining eye-tracking technology with editable videos to test point-of-sale advertising for Tesco.

Jane Frost, chief executive of MRS, said: “The MRS Awards are always a special night – a chance to celebrate with our peers and toast the successes of the past year. But as well as the glitz, trophies and speeches, it is an opportunity to shine a light on the worthy and socially beneficial work our sector does – to remind us all of the power of research and insight outside the commercial sphere.

“Our new Liz Nelson Award for Social Impact does just that and could not be more timely in the partisan days we find ourselves in. The first recipient of the award, along with many of our other winners and nominees, fill me with confidence that our sector can, and will continue to be, a force for good.”

The full list of MRS Awards 2019 winners can be found here.