Information for Applicants
Judging
- A judging panel consisting of clinical and laboratory based scientists with no direct link to the applicant's research and who are either currently supervising PhD candidates or engaged in 'active' research will assess the applications.
- Eight applicants will be chosen by this panel to proceed to the second stage of judging. The eight semi-finalists will be notified during the week beginning
22 August 2008. - Semi-finalists will be required to give an oral presentation of their research work to a general scientific audience, who are not necessarily specialists in the applicant's area of work.
Semi-finals judging will take place on 19 September 2008 between 10.30am and 3pm at the Women's and Children's Hospital.
Presentations by the semi-finalists should be no longer than 12 minutes in length with an additional three minutes for questions. The Judging Panel will be comprised from at least one scientist involved in the assessment of the first round applications and at least one scientist who was not involved in the initial semi-finalist selection.
Presentations will be assessed both on the quality of the science and the presentation skills of the speaker. Please note that judging of the semi-final presentations will be weighted towards the quality of the science.
Criteria for judging at semi-finals
- The quality of science will be assessed on criteria of scientific content, methodology and validity of conclusions.
- The presentation skills will be assessed on criteria of the use of appropriate audiovisual aids, clarity of presentation, engagement with audience, understandability, and general professional appearance.
Note: It is important that the presentations are simplified sufficiently to be understandable to scientific and medical researchers from a broad range of fields.
Three finalists will be chosen to move forward to the Award event (final judging). They will be notified on the day of the semi-final judging.
- At the Award event on 22 October, the three finalists will be required to give a 12 minute presentation in lay language to a general audience consisting of researchers, clinicians, other interested staff and invitees (eg donors, business representatives). There will be an additional three minutes for questions by judges only.
The judges will be members of the media and a scientist. Presentations will be assessed on the ability of the finalists to communicate their research in an interesting and understandable way to non-scientists. Judges will assume that all presentations are of high scientific quality.
Criteria for judging at Award event
The finalists will be assessed on the following criteria:
- The ability to make their research understandable and relevant to the general public.
- The ability to generate enthusiasm and interest in their research by the judging panel, ie. applicants should consider how to make their research attractive to the media.
- Presentation skills, including engagement with audience, clarity of presentation, and general professional appearance.
The winner will be announced that night and prizes presented.
The winner will be required to submit a written report of the conference attended to the Award committee (contact Chair, YIA Committee for report format – see contact details below).
Note that the Award committee members are happy to discuss the assessment criteria to ensure that all applicants clearly understand how the various stages will be assessed.
For further information please contact:
Dr Andrea Averis
Chair YIA Committee
Tel: 08 8161 7703
Email
