Proposal and Selection of Candidates

In principle, any scientist working in the field of geo- and space sciences may propose appropriate candidates for the Union Awards, except for the Union Assembly Awards (see below), and for the Division Medals. Members of the respective Award and Medal Committees and, with respect to the Outstanding Young Scientist Awards, also the Officers of the Union Divisions are invited to propose own candidates, too.

It should be noticed that any person is eligible to receive one EGU Medal only once in his/her lifetime except for the Honorary Membership Medals. Moreover, with respect to the Awards and Medals reserved for the younger and more recently established scientists we refer to the definition of the Union with regard to a young scientist.

Any proposal should consist of a short summary plus a personal statement in support of the candidate in form of an email and the CV and a short list of the most important publications of the nominee as attachments. Proposals should be submitted directly to the appropriate Committee or Division, respectively, via the corresponding Information and Discussion Forum, The absolute deadline is 31 May of each year. Proposals received later will be considered automatically for the next round of selection.

Proposals are then automatically forwarded to the Members of the respective Award or Medal Committees or, with respect to the Outstanding Young Scientist Awards,

to the Officers of the respective Union Division, who will then consider each case in confidence and may seek for further information, if necessary.

With respect to the Outstanding Young Scientist Awards, each Union Division selects its best candidate and forwards his/her records by

31 July of each year to the Outstanding Young Scientist Award Committee. After the evaluation, the Chairperson of each Committee will send the recommendation of his/her Committee together with the corresponding documents (one page summary and a short, two-line citation) of the candidate selected by 01 September of each year to the Chairperson of the EGU Awards Committee who will prepare the necessary documents and citations and forward them to the Council at its meeting in October of each year for final approval. The President will then inform the awardees and medalists appropriately and will invite them to the next General Assembly of the Union, where the awards and medals will be presented. A copy of the letter is sent to the President of the Division and the Chairperson of the specific Medal/Award Committee. The President of the Division is asked then to take all necessary actions for inviting the Medalist to give a lecture at the Assembly.

In parallel, the Programme Committee of the next EGU General Assembly incorporates the corresponding potential Award and Medal Lectures into the overall programme of the meeting, either as “stand-alone” talks or as “invited” contributions in selected sessions. The Chairman then invites the awardees and medalists to submit their contributions to the appropriate events by the overall deadline for the submission of abstracts.

The Union Awards are presented by the President during a special Ceremony at the General Assembly, while the Division Medals are presented by the respective Division Presidents at the beginning of the Award and Medal Lectures/Talks in question.

Time Schedule for Union Awards and Division medals

01 January – 31 May	Open Call-for-Proposals

01 June – 01 September	Survey of all suggestions by the respective Award and Medal Committees. With respect to the Outstanding Young Scientist Awards, the Officers of the Union Divisions will evaluate their proposals between 01 June – 31 July, while the OYS Committee will select max.3 candidates from all suggested by the Divisions by 10 September.

01 – 30 September	Peer assessment of the nominated candidates by the Union Award Committee

October	Presentation of the candidates and final approval by the Union Council at its fall meeting.

October/November	Awardees and Medalists are informed to receive their award/medal at the next General Assembly of the Union.

Union Assembly Awards

In relation with its General Assemblies, the Union presents a number of special awards, such as presently the:

Travel Awards to financially assist in particular young scientists in their participation in these meetings,
Young Scientists’ Outstanding Poster Paper (YSOPP) Award to further improve the overall quality of poster presentations and most importantly, to foster the excitement of younger colleagues in presenting their work in form of a poster

The deadline for applying for Travel Awards is announced on the Home Site of the corresponding General Assembly. The corresponding Session Conveners will forward their candidates to the Support Selection Committee. The Support Selection Committee on behalf of the Council will select the final candidates and will inform them accordingly with the requirement that all applicants must confirm their participation in the meeting. Contributions of those applicants that do not confirm are regarded as withdrawn. Moreover, if a paper for which an award has been granted will not be presented at the Assembly, the award will not be given or has to be returned, respectively.

Records of participants that have received a Travel Award are not included on the Web.

Eligible for the Young Scientists’ Outstanding Poster Paper (YSOPP) Award are MS and PhD students as well as recent graduates (conferral of degree after 1 January of the year preceding the conference) presenting their thesis work provided they are the first author and personally present their poster at the conference. Once the programme has been finalized, authors presenting a poster are invited to register for the award. Their data are then transferred to the respective Division Award Committees, which selects the best poster papers at the meeting. Further details are included on the Home Site of the respective general assembly.