Broad Area Award · 2026
The ten finalist universities are the ten highest-scoring across all 5 subject indices in health & medicine (Dentistry, Health Professions, Medicine, Nursing, Veterinary), from 258 universities ranked in every one of them. 8 finalists are represented by a verified academic and project from the subject awards.
The finalists
Copper induces cell death by targeting lipoylated TCA cycle proteins
Copper keeps every living cell working, and yet above a certain level it becomes lethal. Working in human cells, this study showed that copper-driven cell death is a distinct, regulated process that depends on mitochondrial respiration: copper binds directly to lipoylated components of the tricarboxylic acid cycle, making those proteins aggregate, stripping out iron-sulfur cluster proteins and creating the protein stress that finally kills the cell.
Mapping every tooth in a three-dimensional scan by hand is slow, painstaking work. The project examines the use of artificial intelligence to segment individual teeth in three dimensions from cone-beam computed tomography scans, with the aim of making this imaging task both fast and accurate.
Older people moving between care settings frequently experience discontinuous care and poor information transfer among providers. Through a scoping review of studies published between 2000 and 2020, the team mapped the many factors that influence whether innovations designed to improve transitional care are actually implemented, evidence that can help promising approaches take hold in everyday practice.
Sepsis and septic shock remain deadly, and several inexpensive add-on treatments have been proposed for them. Pooling randomised controlled trials in a network meta-analysis, the study compares vitamin C at several dose levels, glucocorticoids, vitamin B1 and combinations of these against placebo or usual care for longer-term mortality in adults, and grades how certain the evidence behind each option really is.
Costs and Benefits of Improving Farm Animal Welfare
The featured academic for this entry is under editorial verification and will be named ahead of the winners announcement.
Teachers and school leaders describe work that keeps expanding, and this synthesis of forty studies asks what the research really shows. It distinguishes workload from work intensification, two ideas often conflated, and reports negative effects on health, wellbeing and attrition, alongside concern about teachers' capacity to deliver priorities that support the learning of all students.
Involving patients and the public in healthcare is widely endorsed, yet the theory behind it remains thinly developed. This review of reviews gathers evidence on the theories, barriers and enablers of patient and public involvement across health, social care and patient safety, with an eye to addressing power inequities and the limited diversity of those who take part.
A consensus on the definition of positive animal welfare
Animal welfare science has concentrated on minimising suffering, but interest is growing in whether animals can also have good experiences, and the term positive animal welfare has been used inconsistently. An interdisciplinary group reached a consensus definition built around flourishing: predominantly positive mental states plus the development of competence and resilience, including having choices and the chance to pursue goals.
Temporary crowns and bridges are increasingly 3D printed, so their materials deserve close scrutiny. Comparing three commercially available printing resins with an experimental resin intended for definitive prostheses, the study characterised mechanical and biological properties using methods from biaxial flexural testing and finite element analysis to cell proliferation and cytotoxicity assays.
The featured academic for this entry is under editorial verification and will be named ahead of the winners announcement.
Exclusive to partners
Finalists are identified from open data; winners are decided by our editorial team and announced on 15 September 2026.
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