The purpose of the Sir Walter Bodmer Award for Volunteers is to acknowledge publicly the contribution volunteers make to the British Science Association and to encourage others to do so. Volunteers are defined as those individuals who give their time, unpaid, to advance the aims of, or otherwise support, the Association, outside the requirements of their principal employment.

The Award is usually made to an individual, but may be made to a group.  A separate and additional award for long service may be made to any volunteer who has contributed an exemplary length of service to volunteering for the organisation.

This annual award is made each June, and the winner is invited to receive their award at the British Science Festival Dinner. The patron of the award is Sir Walter Bodmer, a past Chair of the British Science Association Council, and a founder of one of the biggest volunteering organisations in the UK (Imperial Cancer Research Fund).

The Association’s volunteers are likely to fall into the following categories, although this is not an exhaustive list:

• Members
• Branch Committee Members
• Section Committee Members
• Council members
• Honorary Fellows
• Science Club leaders
• British Science Festival  speakers
• CREST teachers
• Event helpers

Criteria:

• Evidence must be offered about the nature and extent of their volunteer activity to the benefit of the Association, through a nomination form.
• Association staff and their families may not be nominated.

Eligibility:

• Anyone may make a nomination, whether they are Association staff, members, existing volunteers or people not associated with the Association. 
• An individual may nominate more than one person.
• Nominations may only be made through a completed Nomination Form which is available on the Association website during the nomination period (see below).  Hard copies of the nomination form are also available, on request, from the Association.
• Individuals may not nominate themselves.