2025 Prizes

The Ronnie MacKeith Prize Lecture

The Ronnie MacKeith Prize is awarded to those who have made a significant contribution to paediatric neurology as judged by published work and who are under the age of 40 years or within 5 years of obtaining CCST at the time of the application closing date. The prize lecturer gives a 30-minute presentation at the BPNA conference and is awarded £1000 plus full registration for the conference plus travel expenses and hotel accommodation. Click to see the list of previous Ronnie MacKeith Prize Lecturers.

The BPNA 2025 Ronnie MacKeith Prize was awarded to Dr Elizabeth Radford (University of Cambridge; and Wellcome Sanger Institute, Hinxton)
for her presentation entitled ‘Turning the tide of variants of uncertain significance: a role for saturation mutagenesis?’

Developmental Medicine and Child Neurology (DMCN) Best Article by a BPNA early career Member

Best original article, case series, review paper, or clinical practice guide published by a BPNA trainee or early career consultant in the DMCN volume (Volume 65) published during the year prior to the BPNA annual conference. One author at least on the paper must be a BPNA trainee or early career consultant at the time of submission, and this can include a member of an author group. The deadline date for submission is 15 November 2024. 

  • The BPNA author should be within two years of achieving their Certificate of Completion of Training (or equivalent).
  • The BPNA author should have made a demonstrable contribution of the paper. 
  • The BPNA author may be based in any country. 

Key Criteria: 

  • Impact on the lives of patients, caregivers and their families.
  • Methodological robustness.
  • Novelty. 

Any BPNA trainee member or early career consultant may nominate any of their papers at any point during the preceding calendar year of the conference, by emailing admin@mackeith.co.uk with details of your nomination, including a copy of your CV and a brief explanation of how your paper fulfils the criteria. Papers may be nominated at any time and will be considered for the prize relating to the volume in which the paper is ultimately published. £1000 will be awarded by MacKeith Press to the BPNA prize winner. 

The BPNA 2024 ‘Developmental Medicine and Child Neurology (DMCN) Best Article by a BPNA early career Member' prize was awarded to Dr Samantha Chan (St George's Hospital) for the presentation entitled ‘Sleep homeostasis, seizures, and cognition in children with focal epilepsy’.



Best Oral Poster Presentation by a Trainee Prize

This will be awarded to the trainee presenting the best oral poster at the BPNA 2025 conference. When you submit your abstract, please remember to tick 'I am a trainee' (FY1-ST8, fellows, etc). The prize, sponsored by the BPNA, will be full registration to the BPNA 2026 conference.

The BPNA 2024 Best Poster Prize was awarded to Dr Susan Harvey (Great Ormond Street Hospital) for poster presentation entitled ‘Relationship between EEG and Seizure Outcome in typical absence seizures in children' and to Dr Abigail Lazenbury (Southampton General Hospital) for poster presentation entitled ‘Management of Paediatric Cerebral Venous Sinus Thrombosis - a single centre retrospective review of current clinical practice’.

Best Oral Presentation by a Trainee Prize

This will be awarded to the trainee presenting the best oral presentation at the BPNA 2025 conference. When submitting your abstract please remember to record you are a trainee (FY1-ST8, fellows) when entering authors and affiliations. The prize will be full registration to the BPNA 2026 conference.

The BPNA 2024 Best Oral Presentation Prize was awarded to Dr Robert Spaull (Great Ormond Street Institute for Child Health) for the presentation entitled ‘Precision gene therapy for aromatic l-amino acid decarboxylase (AADC) deficiency'.

Best Medical Student Presentation Prize

This will be awarded to the medical student with the best presentation, either poster or oral. When submitting your abstract please remember to record you are a medical student (undergraduate) when entering authors and affiliations'.  The prize, sponsored by the BPNA, will be full registration to the BPNA 2026 conference.

The BPNA 2024 'Best Medical Student Presentation' prize was awarded to Miss Emily Gaskin (University of Sheffield) for the presentation entitled ‘Living with Hereditary Spastic Paraparesis: A Qualitative Descriptive Study’.