The autumn brings a flurry of awards for scientific research. The high-profile honours recognize well-established researchers, and many of the recipients of one eventually go on to win another — a sizeable subset of Lasker Award winners have subsequently received Nobel Prizes, for example.

One could say, tongue in cheek, that those people don't really need recognition at this point in their career. After all, they tend to have good funding and facilities already. Sure, the award money is nice. And statues on one's desk convey a certain gravitas.

But it is younger researchers who really need the recognition that prizes bring. They tend to be doing much of the bench work themselves and often have to scramble for support to keep their lab running, even with a good publication record. Fortunately, such awards do exist, although they are less well known. A new prize, the European Young Investigator Awards (EURYI), gave out its first crop of €1.25-million (US$1.55-million), five-year grants this summer.

Another, the EMBO Gold Medal, was awarded last week to María Blasco, director of the molecular oncology programme at the National Cancer Centre in Madrid. She is the first Spanish citizen and only the third woman to receive this award for young European scientists since its launch in 1986. Individual countries are also following the trend, with Science Foundation Ireland's President of Ireland Young Researcher Award (PIYRA) being awarded last week to four young researchers, each of whom will receive up to €1.2 million over a five-year period.

Hopefully, more awards programmes like EURYI, PIYRA and the ‘Gold’ will follow. And they will aid as well as predict the future winners of those high-profile prizes.