The RIBA is holding a competition for the design of the new President’s Medal for Research to recognize 10 years of awards for research.

The competition is for the design of a new Research Medal to sit alongside the Institute’s other prestigious President’s Medals – Gold, Silver, and Bronze. These have been awarded since the nineteenth century, with the current design settled in the 1980s. The Institute has a proud history of holding and promoting open, honest and fair competition for architectural and civic design projects.

The competition will be an opportunity for designers and craftsmen to submit designs for a new medal – contemporary or traditional – that reflects the history and prestige of the President’s medals, the centrality of research to the RIBA’s mission and activities, and the relevance and impact of research on architectural practice more broadly.

The competition will be held in two stages. For the first, the RIBA is seeking Expressions of Interest from individuals and teams for the design of the new Medal. Competitors are asked to provide information regarding relevant experience and, where possible, examples of previous work in this field, as well as a brief statement outlining how they might approach the design for the obverse and reverse. We encourage as wide a range of proposals as possible. Entries will be anonymised before the judging panel invites up to six shortlisted candidates to provide full drawings and proposals for the medal. Honoraria of £250 will be awarded to the shortlisted competitors, and a prize of £2,000 awarded to the overall winner.

Full competition guidelines and a registration form for the open stage of the competition are available on the competition’s website and here in .pdf format. Enquiries should be sent to [email protected]. The competition will be judged by an eminent panel including the present and immediate past president of the Institute; Philip Attwood, Keeper of Coins and Medals at the British Museum and President of the British Art Medal Society; and Charles Hind, RIBA Chief Curator and H J Heinz Curator of Drawings.