Regional Studies Association Awards

Awards to recognise outstanding research contributions to regional studies by early-career researchers, PhD students and Master’s students.

The Regional Studies Association (RSA) is a professional membership association that acts as a global forum for city and regional research, development and policy. The Association works with its international and interdisciplinary membership to facilitate the highest standards of theoretical development, empirical analysis and policy debate of issues at a sub-national scale, incorporating both the urban and rural and different conceptions of space such as city-regions and interstitial spaces. Its interests are multi-disciplinary, covering issues of economic development and growth, conceptions of territory and its governance and equity and injustice.

The RSA Awards recognise outstanding contributions to regional studies research by Master’s students, PhD students and early-career researchers. Research papers submitted for consideration can address any aspect of economic, political, social or environmental issues relevant to regional studies.

There are three awards:

• Nathaniel Lichfield Award – for a recent Masters graduate who has graduated within the previous year.
• Paul Benneworth PhD Student Award – for registered PhD students who have not yet received their PhD certificate.
• RSA Routledge Early Career Award – for early career researchers (defined as being within five years of the date on their PhD certificate or equivalent).

Nominees are expected to have made an original and outstanding contribution to research concerned with the analysis of regions and regional issues. This could include any of research methodology, from quantitative to qualitative, the use of thoughtful comparative research, and span boundaries between academia and policy and practice.

To be eligible for nomination, the recipient should be clearly identified as having made a leading personal contribution in an academic publication.