Announcing Emerging Researcher Awards

General news

The National Institute for Health Innovation (NIHI), University of Auckland and ASPIRE2025, University of Otago are delighted to announce there will be three inaugural awards presented at the upcoming Smokefree2025 Research Symposium and we invite your entries.

The awards are for:

  1. Excellence in tobacco control research for Māori by an emerging researcher.
  2. The best tobacco control paper led by an emerging researcher published in the last year.
  3. The best tobacco control poster led by an emerging researcher presented in the last year.

The entries for each award will be assessed by a panel of experts using the criteria below, with the winner receiving a certificate, a book token and of course, great prestige!

Who can enter?

Entries can be by self-nomination or nomination on behalf of someone else and must relate to work by ‘Emerging Researchers’ only. An Emerging Researcher is defined as early career researchers who do not yet have a PhD or who graduated with their PhD within the last five years.

What are the criteria? Excellence in tobacco control research for Māori

To be eligible the nominee must be:

  • An emerging Māori researcher (has gained relevant qualifications and/or experience and started working in tobacco control research (academic, policy or community focus) in the past five years) AND
  • Conducted tobacco control research (either individually or as part of a wider research team) that contributes to or will contribute to the evidence base on how harm caused by tobacco use can be reduced within Māori communities

The judging criteria will be:

  1. Degree to which their contribution to research has had a positive influence, or has potential to have a positive influence on tobacco control practice, policies or interventions that will reduce smoking prevalence among Māori and smoking disparities.
  2. Degree to which the nominee has demonstrated initiative and/or leadership in conducting research.

To enter, please submit a brief CV (max 5 pages) and a short statement (max 1 page) detailing how the nominee meets the judging criteria for the award.

What are the criteria? Best Paper Award

To be eligible, the tobacco control paper must have been published in print or online for the first time within the past year, ie: the period from the 1st October 2017 to the 1st October 2018.

The judging criteria will be:

  1. Importance of the topic e.g. potential to: impact on practice, intervention design or implementation; or reduce prevalence and reduce disparities.
  2. Rigour e.g. of design, methods, and analysis.
  3. Clarity of presentation of the  findings.
  4. Quality of the discussion e.g. clarity of summary of key findings; appropriate discussion of implications for practice/policy/research; situating findings in relation to previous research and NZ context (e.g. Māori and Pacific peoples, disparities; implications for policy or practice); appraisal of strengths and weaknesses.
  5. Evidence of effective dissemination, engagement and impact e.g. efforts to disseminate findings to key audiences, evidence of interest and uptake by media, practitioners, or policy-makers.

To enter, please submit an electronic or hard copy of the full paper with evidence of date of print/online publication and a statement setting out in 500 words or less a case for why the paper should be awarded the prize.

What are the criteria? Best Poster Award

To be eligible, the tobacco control poster must have been presented for the first time within the past year, ie: the period from the 1st October 2017 to the 1st October 2018. Posters may be in any format (from A0 to a collection of A4 slides).

The judging criteria will be:

  1. Visual impact
  2. Layout and flow
  3. Clear description of research gap and methods (and results – if available)
  4. Strong take-away message

To enter, please submit a PDF file of your poster. Note you are welcome to display your poster at the Symposium.

What is the timing?

All entries should be submitted to Fran Wright (fran.wright@otago.ac.nz) no later than 5pm, 1st November, 2018. The awards will be presented at the Smokefree2025 Research Symposium on the 9th November in Wellington. See website for more details.

We look forward to recognising the outstanding work being undertaken by Emerging Researchers in Aotearoa.