Inspiring Science Award

The AAAFM Awards for Inspiring Science and Innovating Science are here. AAAFM espouses gender equity. With these awards, we celebrate female researchers that inspire young women to excel in STEM disciplines.

Specifically, the awards commemorate outstanding young female researchers and honor organizations and people who encourage young women to excel in STEM disciplines.

The Inspiring Science Award accepts nominations of extraordinary female scientists who are within a decade of completing their doctorate in a STEM subject from any location globally. Only department heads, laboratory heads or other people from a given institution can nominate a candidate.

Even though the basis of the Inspiring Science Award is academic achievement, the judging process is independent, and the panelists also take into consideration nominees weight into their decision the adverse circumstances (e.g., living in a region with limited access to scientific literature) of disadvantaged candidates to level the playing field.

To nominate a candidate, a senior nominator from a research institute submits a completed nomination form that includes the candidate’s achievements overviews, the senior nominator’s public engagement, and a supporting statement from the candidate.

Inspiring Science Award

The Inspiring Science Award accepts nominations of extraordinary female scientists who are within a decade of completing their doctorate in a STEM subject from any location globally. Only department heads, laboratory heads or other people from a given institution can nominate a candidate.

Even though the basis of the Inspiring Science Award is academic achievement, the judging process is independent, and the panelists take into consideration nominee’s weight into their decision the adverse circumstances (e.g., living in a region with limited access to scientific literature) of disadvantaged candidates to level the playing field.

Nomination

  • The nomination is done by her research institute through the nomination form (completed by a senior nominator) and written supporting statements from the nominee
  • Nomination criteria
  • Past or current scientific achievements such as abstracts, research papers, grant proposals, and conference talks
  • Achievements in improving access to STEM subjects for young women, examples include university courses, social media outreach, mentoring, and tutoring.

Supporting statements

A nominee’s written supporting statement should summarize their primary achievements, outreach, and plans.

Media

AAAFM owns the right to videos published for the promotion of the Award. The videos will not be used for other purpose expects with AAAFM’s written permission.

Accepting the Award and Prize

  • The Award winner will be required to accept the Award and Prize within 14 days, failure to which they will forfeit the Award, giving the Award Promoter the right to select another winner.
  • The judges’ decision is final.
  • The Award and associated prizes are not transferable.
  • Nominees who are found interfering or tampering with the Award process will be disqualified
  • Longlisted and shortlisted nominees promise to keep the listing and status of the Award confidential until the Promoter announces the longlist, shortlist, and award. Furthermore, longlisted and shortlisted nominees agree not to disclose results before the Award ceremony.

Subtitle

It is considered that candidates nominated into the AAAFM Inspiring Science Award Competition (the “Award”) have read and agree to the terms and conditions (the “Terms”), which include instructions for participating in the Award. Violation of the Terms results in disqualification.

The Terms are as follows:

Eligible candidates

Inspiring Science Award Terms and Conditions

Participants of the AAAFM Inspiring Science Award Competition, herein referred to as the “Award”, are considered to have read and agreed to the terms and conditions, herein referred to as the “Terms”. Violation of the Terms will lead to the disqualification from the Award. All participation instructions are included in the Terms.

 

1: Nominees must meet the following requirements to be eligible: (a) be an early career female* academician who has completed their PhD no more than ten years before the end of the year in which the Award will be granted. This period excludes leaves of absence (e.g., maternity leaves) taken during the 10 years. Nominees should not occupy a tenured position. Eligible nominees include those in tenure-track positions and post-doc positions and those who have individual funding; and (b) work in the natural sciences and social sciences including physics, chemistry, biology, engineering, maths, applied & social sciences, clinical sciences, earth science, and environmental science. * The Award uses an inclusive definition of “female” and “woman”, meaning the Award accepts female identifying non-binary individuals, genderqueer women, and trans-women.

2: The Award does not accept (a) individuals from countries or regions where national, provincial, state, or local laws do not allow participating in, operation of, and promotion of such awards and accepting prices related to the Award or (b) immediate family members, employees, and directors of the Promoter or any of its subsidiaries, or (c) an early career academician that self-identifies as male.

3: Only a nominee’s research institute can nominate them. Nomination is done through a nomination form which includes a nominator’s (senior sponsor’s) nomination and the nominee’s written supporting statements.

4: Award criteria: (i) Scientific achievements. A nominator’s written overview detailing the scientific achievements of the nominee, including current and past research plans. Word count should not exceed 700. The overview should include four primary highlights, e.g., abstracts, research papers, grant proposals, and conference talks, and (ii) Achievements in improving access to science for young women. A nominator’s written overview (not exceeding 700 words) detailing nominee’s efforts toward increasing access for young women to science and efforts toward bolstering interest in STEM subjects from young women in the nominee’s field of specialty. Examples include university courses, social media outreach, mentoring, tutoring, conferences, lectures and other forms of general public engagement. (These examples need not be specific to women.)

5: Nominee’s supporting statement. A nominee’s written supporting statement that summarizes their key achievement and plans for research and outreach. This statement should not exceed 500 words and should be in essay format. Additionally, the nominee should submit a brief video (not exceeding 5 minutes) summarizing their main achievements.

6: AAAFM has the rights to video content shared on platforms (such as YouTube and Facebook among others) if the content links back to the website of the Award. Videos submitted to the Award will not be used for other purposes without written permission from AAAFM.

7: The Award winner will be required to accept the Award and accompanying prize with 14 calendar days. The winner may be required to return a completed eligibility form. Failure to accept the Award within 14 days following notification will be taken as forfeiture of the Award and Prize. The Promoter reserves the right to select another winner. The decision of the judges is final, and the Promoter reserves the right not to engage in correspondence regarding the decision.

8: The Promoter reserves the right to amend or cancel the Terms or modify the Prize (provided the alternative Prize is of equal/greater value) pursuant to the circumstances. The Promoter will not offer a cash equivalent for the Prize.

9: The Award and accompanying Prize(s) are not transferable.

10: In its sole discretion, AAAFM may disqualify any winner or nominee found to be interfering or tampering with the operations or process of the Awards website in ways deemed prejudicial to or disruptive of the administration or operation the Award or otherwise in ways inconsistent with the Nature Research standards regarding research integrity and ethics.

11: Every nominee who is longlisted and shortlisted pledges to maintain complete confidentiality of the listing and status of the Award until the Promoter makes a public announcement at each phase of the Award, shortlist, and longlist. The winner of the Award agrees to not disclose the results before the Awards ceremony.

12: These terms and conditions shall be construed and governed by English. Disputes that emanate with relation to this Terms shall be subject to the English courts’ non-exclusive jurisdiction.