The recipient will be expected to give a Review Lecture at the Royal Irish Academy, and a copy of the lecture must be deposited in the Library of the Royal Irish Academy. The recipient will receive a sterling silver medal marking the Award. Nominations are welcomed from universities, institutes of technology, colleges, research institutions, professional associations, hospitals and industry and should be made independently by two scientists, familiar with the work of the nominee. A covering letter should clearly establish justification for the nomination, with a statement of the contribution to microbiology made by the nominee. A short curriculum vitae, a full bibliography of the nominee's work and a set of reprints or photocopies of contributions to be considered should also be provided, and limited to a maximum of ten papers.
Nominations are open to the whole island of Ireland and to all areas and aspects of microbiology.
An individual may only receive the Award once. The Award will primarily recognise scientific work carried out in Ireland in the past decade and may be made every two years or other frequency in response to the quality of the nominations. In 1999 the award was won by Dr Alan Dobson of University College Cork, for his work on the regulation of gene expression in eucaryotic and prokaryotic micro-organisms.