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Since  launched in 2005, the journal's community of scientists across career stages has grown around the world. At the core of this community are the future leaders in their fields, early career researchers, who may be starting to submit their studies for publication the first time.

With this in mind, we launched the annual Biology Letters Early Career Researcher Competition in 2022 to highlight the best research papers published in the journal by ECRs. The overall winner of the best published research article receives £1000 and the two runners-up receive £500 each (or currency equivalent). We hope the prizes are particularly helpful for supporting the recipients’ continued excellence in their field.

2026 Competition

The competition has now closed for 2026. Please check back for updates on our finalists later this year.

Past winners

2025 winner

We are excited to announce that the winner of the 2025 competition is Gayathri Kondakath for the research article .

“I highly recommend that other early career researchers apply, as it boosts confidence and provides valuable visibility for your work.”

Visit our blog for a discussion with Gayathri Kondakath about her winning paper.

2025 runners-up

Chase Brownstein for the research paper . Read our blog post to hear more from Chase Brownstein about his research.

Aditya R Kurre for the research paper . Read a discussion with Aditya R Kurre about his paper on our blog.

Arlo Hinckley for the research paper . Read our blog to find out more about this paper.

The competition saw fantastic entries for the 2025 prize. You can see all of these on this .

2024 winner

Jose Borrero for the research article .

“I was pleasantly surprised and honoured to be a finalist. Being recognized for our work was incredibly rewarding. This paper involved a great deal of effort, particularly in training the (sometimes stubborn) butterflies. I really recommend other early career researchers to enter the competition. It’s a great opportunity to gain recognition and share your work with a wider audience.”

Visit our blog for a discussion with Jose Borrero about his winning paper.

2024 runners-up

Ruby Stephens for the research paper . Read our blog post for a discussion with Ruby Stephens about her research.

Daniel J Leybourne for the research paper . Visit our blog to read a discussion with Daniel J Leybourne about his paper.

2023 winner

Joe Wynn for the research article .

In the winning paper, the authors show that naïve birds that have likely never left their breeding site show seasonally-appropriate spring migratory orientation, suggesting that there is likely an inherited component to spring migration. The judges found this to be a striking and unexpected result with a nicely designed study system.

Joe notes; “It’s always funny seeing how other people see you – and how their valuations of your work differ from your own – and it’s very rare that the papers I think are good that other people appreciate. To that end, I would always encourage people to be optimistic and positive when it comes to their research (including with regards to competitions!)”.

Visit our blog for a discussion with Joe Wynn about his winning paper.

2023 runners-up

Ana Valenzuela Toro for the research article . Visit our blog to read a discussion with Ana Valenzuela Toro about her paper.

Antoine Guiguet for the research article . Read our blog post for a discussion with Antoine Guigue about their research.