Best practices for the EGU awards and medals

10 February 2023

• The composition of the EGU awards and medals committees
  • Composition of the Union Awards Committee
  • Composition of the Union medals committees
  • Composition of the division medals committees
  • Composition of the Arne Richter Awards for Outstanding Early Career Scientists Committee
  • Composition of the Katia and Maurice Krafft Award Committee
  • Composition of the Union Service Award Committee
  • Composition of the Division Outstanding Early Career Scientists (ECS) Awards Committees
  • Composition of the Angela Croome Award Committee
  • Composition of the Champion(s) for Equality, Diversity and Inclusion Award Committee
• Nomination procedures for Union and division awards and medals
  • Nominations for the Union and division medals
  • Nominations for the Katia and Maurice Krafft Award
  • Nominations for the Union Service Award
  • Nominations for the Outstanding ECS awards
  • Nominations for the Angela Croome Award
  • Nominations for the Champion(s) for Equality, Diversity and Inclusion Award
• Selection of candidates and confidentiality
  • Policy for conflict of interest
  • Selection procedures
• Application procedures for an OSPP Award
  • Criteria for application
  • Application procedure
  • Selection procedure
  • Award presentation

EGU awards and medals recognise eminent scientists, regardless of their career stage, for their outstanding research contributions in the Earth, planetary, and space sciences or to outreach as well as outstanding journalists who report on Earth, planetary, or space sciences.

The purposes of the EGU awards and medals programme are also to:

• Identify the awardees and medallists as role models to foster the next generation of geoscientists;
• Elect the awardees and medallists as ambassadors for the EGU on the global scale.

A list of the EGU awards and medals is published on the EGU website.

To increase diversity in the group of EGU awardees and medallists, EGU encourages the membership to consider diversity with a broad perspective when nominating outstanding Earth, planetary, and space scientists at all career stages.

Each award and medal has a award/medal committee, which works under the Union Awards Committee (UAC). Each award/medal committee consists of members who work together to assess the nominations.

The Council makes all final decisions regarding EGU awards and medals recipients.

The EGU recommends that the composition of each Union award and medal committee is representative of the diversity of the scientific community. Past medallists and ECS can be included in the awards and medals committees.

Composition of the Union Awards Committee

The chair of the UAC is appointed by the Council for a period of two years, renewable once. Members of the UAC are the chair, the president, the vice-president, the general secretary, the executive secretary, and the treasurer of EGU.

Composition of the Union medals committees

The chair of each Union medal committee is appointed by the Council. The term is one year and can be renewed three times. The Council appoints a minimum of four additional members. Committee members can include past Union or division medallists. They should, however, include at least one member who is not a past medallist. Additionally, the chair of the UAC is an ex-officio member. The term of the committee members is one year and can be renewed three times. One member of the committee should be replaced each year.

The role of the chair of each committee includes bringing in the knowledge of the community and maintaining continuity. The role of the members is to bring in their knowledge of the community and their expertise. The role of the chair of the UAC is to ensure contact with the Council and that the Union’s best practices are followed. In case a new medal is established, a transitional committee should be formed.

Composition of the division medals committees

The chair of each division medal committee is nominated and discussed at the annual division meeting and appointed by the Council. The term of the chair is one year and can be renewed three times.

The division medal committee includes at least three additional members. Members can be past medallists. At least one member should not be a past medallist. Members shall be approved at the division annual meeting and formally appointed by the Council. Their term is one year and can be renewed three times. The division president and the chair of the UAC are ex-officio members.

One member of the committee is replaced each year. The role of the chair of the medal committee and the division president includes bringing in their knowledge of the community. The role of the chair of the UAC is to ensure contact with the Council. In case a new medal is established, a transitional committee should be formed.

Composition of the Arne Richter Awards for Outstanding Early Career Scientists Committee

The committee is annually formed by the division presidents and is chaired by the chair of the UAC.

Composition of the Katia and Maurice Krafft Award Committee

The committee is formed by at least two members with recognised experience in geoscience outreach and at least one other member. Nominations for members are discussed by the Outreach Committee and appointed by the Council. Term of members is one year and can be renewed three times.

Composition of the Union Service Award Committee

The committee is formed by the UAC and is chaired by the chair of the UAC.

Composition of the Division Outstanding Early Career Scientists (ECS) Awards Committees

The committee is formed by the division president (chair) and additional members that can be nominated by the relevant division. The term of the additional members is one year and can be renewed three times.

Composition of the Angela Croome Award Committee

The committee is formed by at least two journalists and at least one other member. Nominations for members are discussed by the Outreach Committee and appointed by the Council. Term of members is one year and can be renewed three times.

Composition of the Champion(s) for Equality, Diversity and Inclusion Award Committee

The jury shall be composed of two current members of the EGU EDI committee one of which will be the Chair of this award committee (Champion(s) for Equality, Diversity and Inclusion), one member of the EGU Executive Board, one member from the EGU Council, one ECS member and two external EGU members. One of the EDI Co-Chairs will be an ex-officio member of the committee. The jury should be a diverse group with different demographic backgrounds that collectively represent the diversity of our EGU membership. The term of a jury member is one year that can be renewed three additional times. One-third of the committee should be replaced annually.

A person is eligible to receive one EGU/EUG/EGS medal only once in their lifetime, except for the Union medals, which can be assigned only once to any person, including previous division medal awardees. With regards to ECS, any candidate who complies with the Early Career Scientist definition is eligible to receive one outstanding ECS award in their lifetime. This can be either the Arne Richter Award for ECS or a Division ECS Award.

All past EGU awardees and medallists are eligible for the Katia and Maurice Krafft Award, provided they have not previously received it. The same applies to the Union Service Award.

Moreover, the following individuals are not eligible to be candidates for awards and/or medals during their terms of service and one year after the term is finished (meaning that the nomination for these individuals cannot be accepted during the year their term ended, but can be accepted the subsequent year):

• EGU president;
• EGU vice-president;
• Council members (not including ex-officio members);
• Chairs of EGU committees.

Similarly, members of the awards and medals committees are not eligible for that award/medal in the year they step down as committee members and the following year (term of committee members ends during the General Assembly when the award is conferred). Their nomination can only be accepted from the third nomination period after they leave the committee.

Recipients of EGU (including EUG and EGS) awards, with the exception of the Katia and Maurice Krafft Award, the Union Service Award, and the Angela Croome Award, cannot receive a lower-level recognition afterwards from the EGU (e.g., a recipient of a Union medal cannot receive a division medal).

It is possible to award recognition shared between individuals: in this case, the relevant recognition will not subsequently be awarded for as many years as the number of recipients exceeds one. Any candidate can be nominated for only one EGU medal or award each year. An ECS can be nominated for the division ECS award for one division only per year.

Awards and medals committee members, including ex-officio members, cannot submit nominations or write support letters for the awards or medals for which they are serving.

Nominations for all awards and medals are to be submitted online by the stipulated deadline (usually in June) of each year. Only EGU members can submit nominations for EGU medals and awards except for the Angela Croome Award. Proposals are then forwarded to the chair of the relevant award or medal committee. Nominations for EGU awards and medals are not automatically renewed for the subsequent year. A person can receive only one EGU medal or award each year. Self-nominations are not accepted except for the Angela Croome Award.

For the Angela Croome Award, nominations by both EGU members and non-members are accepted and self-nomination is possible. Past recipients are not eligible.

Nominations should include the following items and written in the English language:

Nominations for the Union and division medals

• Nomination letter. It should not exceed 5000 characters (including spaces) and must clearly detail why the candidate deserves this recognition, with particular focus on the candidate’s scientific contributions to the field, describing the importance, the impact on the discipline, and implications for the future of these contributions. The new views and insights that have been stimulated by the candidate’s work are particularly relevant.
• Supporting letters. Between three and five letters of support (maximum 5000 characters each including spaces) should be submitted. These letters should clearly establish the nominee’s recognised contributions to the field.
• Nomination package (PDF document). The nomination package needs to include the following items:
  • Curriculum Vitae (two pages). A summary of the candidate’s CV, including the candidate’s name, address, history of employment, degrees, research and teaching/supervising experience, honours, and service to the community, including service to EGU.
  • Selected bibliography (two pages). A list of selected publications by the candidate that best support the nomination. The candidate’s total number and types of publications and citations should also be briefly stated.

Nominations for the Katia and Maurice Krafft Award

• Nomination letter. It should not exceed 5000 characters (including spaces) and must clearly detail why the candidate deserves this recognition, with particular focus on the candidate’s contributions to geoscience outreach and engagement, and the importance and impact of these contributions. The new views and insights that have been stimulated by the candidate’s work are particularly relevant.
• Supporting letters. Between three and five letters of support (maximum 5000 characters including spaces each) should be submitted. These letters should clearly establish the nominee’s recognised contributions to geoscience outreach and engagement.
• Nomination package (PDF document). The nomination package needs to include the following item:
  • Curriculum Vitae (one page). A summary of the candidate’s CV, including the candidate’s name, address, outreach experience, honours, and service to society.

Nominations for the Union Service Award

• Nomination letter. It should not exceed 5000 characters (including spaces) and must clearly detail why the candidate deserves this recognition, in particular focussing on the candidate’s scientific contributions to the Union.
• Supporting letters. One or two letters of support (maximum 5000 characters including spaces each). These letters should clearly establish the nominee’s contributions to the Union.
• Nomination package (PDF document). The nomination package needs to include the following item:
  • Curriculum Vitae (one page), with particular emphasis on the candidate’s activity in the Union.

Nominations for the Outstanding ECS awards

• Nomination letter. It should not exceed 2500 characters (including spaces) and must clearly detail why the candidate deserves this recognition, including the division to which the candidate’s research is most applicable.
• Nomination package (PDF document). The nomination package needs to include the following items:
  • Curriculum Vitae. A summary of the candidate’s CV (one page), including the date when their highest degree qualification was received.
  • Selected bibliography. A list of selected publications by the candidate that best support the nomination (half page).

Nominations for the Angela Croome Award

• Nomination letter. It should not exceed 5000 characters (including spaces) and must clearly detail why the candidate deserves this recognition, in particular focussing on the candidate’s contributions to Earth, planetary. or space science journalism, including how their work promoted discoveries relevant to Europe or European citizens.
• Nomination package (PDF document). The nomination package needs to include the following items:
  • Curriculum Vitae (one page). A summary, in English, of the candidate’s CV, including the candidate’s name, address, journalism experience, and honours.
  • Samples of reporting published within the past five years. Up to three samples of reporting that establish the nominee’s excellent contributions to Earth, planetary, or space science journalism. The samples may be in any language. Each submitted sample must be accompanied by a summary in English (maximum one page) providing a synthesis of the content and information to evaluate the value of the contribution.

Nominations for the Champion(s) for Equality, Diversity and Inclusion Award

• Nomination letter. It should not exceed 5000 characters (including spaces) and must clearly state why the individual or team deserves this recognition, with a particular focus on the nominee’s contributions to equality, diversity and inclusion initiatives, and the importance and impact of these contributions. Descriptions of new views, insights and working practices stimulated by the actions of the candidate(s) should be included in the nomination letter. Specific links of the candidate(s) to the EGU community should also be stated.
• Supporting letters. Three letters of support should be submitted for the individual or the team. These letters should clearly set out the significance and importance of the nominee’s contributions to improving equality, diversity and inclusion in the geoscience community. A maximum of 5000 characters (including spaces) is allowed for the supporting letters.
• Nomination package (PDF document).
  • Curriculum Vitae. For a single individual, include a short summary of the candidate’s CV, including the name, address, education, work experience, honours, and services to society of the candidate (maximum 2 pages). For teams, a group coordinator should be selected on behalf of the group, with a short summary for each group member (maximum 5 pages). The descriptions should also have an emphasis on initiatives, activities, and service for the geoscience community especially regarding equality, diversity and inclusion.

Award and medal committees exclusively discuss and vote on the Union forums, and otherwise by email while keeping the chair of the UAC in carbon copy. If virtual meetings are organised, the minutes must be made available on the forum. The vote of the chair of the individual award or medal committee prevails in case of parity. Award and medal committee chairs and members are expected to keep strict confidentiality on the discussion that leads to the selection of the winners. The outcome of the selection by the award and medal committee is to be kept strictly confidential until Council approves the entire list of winners and the decision has been communicated to the winners.

Policy for conflict of interest

Any EGU award or medal is selected through a rigorous assessment of the candidates and their merits. The EGU Council, the award and medal committee members, and the Union and division officers are committed to soliciting the nomination of deserving individuals by avoiding conflicts of interest. Awards and medals may not be conferred in a given year if high-quality nominations are not received.

Candidates for the Union and division awards and medals are evaluated by the respective awards and medals committees before final approval by the Council.

If only one nomination is received for a Union or division medal, the UAC will assess the merits of the candidate and may seek the help of external peers to ensure that the candidate is high profile and deserving. The EGU reserves the right to not confer the medal when there is only one nomination. The assessment made by the UAC is approved by Council before medals are conferred.

Awards and medals committees must prevent conflicts of interest during the selection procedure. Awards and medals committee members should declare at the beginning of the selection procedure if they have any personal and/or professional relationship with any candidate, including:

• Known family relationship as spouse, child, sibling, or parent.
• Business or professional partnership.
• Past or present association as thesis advisor or thesis student.
• Collaboration on a project, a book, article, report, or paper within the last 5 years, and 10 years if a substantial number of co-publications are involved.
• Co-editing of a journal, compendium, or conference proceedings within the last 48 months.
• Having had substantial collaboration during their professional career.
• Current employment at the same institution.
• Previous employment at the same institution within the last 12 months.
• Being considered for employment at the institution.
• Being involved in any office, governing board membership, or relevant committee chairpersonship in the same institution.
• Having received an honorarium and/or award from the same institution in the past 24 months.

It is the responsibility of the chair of the award/medal committee to reveal any possible conflict of interest to the chair of the UAC.

The chair of the UAC, after consultation with the chair of the relevant award/medal committee, may decide to exclude an award/medal committee member from the consultation if the personal and/or professional relationship with any nominee is deemed to have a potential impact on the selection of candidates.

Members of awards and medals committees and the chair of the UAC may for other reasons determine that there are potential conflicts that require elimination from service in a committee.

Selection procedures

Awards and medals winners are selected according to the following procedures:

• Candidates for medals are evaluated by the respective medal committees and approved by the Council.
• Candidates for the Union Service Award are evaluated by the UAC and approved by the Council.
• Candidates for the Katia and Maurice Krafft and Angela Croome awards are evaluated by the relevant award committee and approved by the Council.
• Candidates for the Champion(s) for Equality, Diversity and Inclusion award are evaluated by the relevant award committee and approved by the Council.
• Candidates for the Division Outstanding ECS Awards are first evaluated by the relevant division committee, which forwards the best candidate to the chair of the UAC. Four candidates are then selected by the Council and awarded at the Union level (Arne Richter Awards for Outstanding ECS). The remaining best candidates are awarded by the relevant division.

The president will then inform the awardees and medallists appropriately and will invite them to the next EGU General Assembly, where the awards and medals will be presented. The EGU office, on behalf of the chair of the EGU Awards and Medal Committee and the EGU president, will take all necessary actions for inviting the Union and division awardees and medallists to give an award/medal lecture at the General Assembly. In parallel, the Programme Committee of the next EGU General Assembly incorporates the corresponding potential award/medal lectures into the overall programme of the meeting, either as stand-alone lectures or as invited contributions in selected sessions.

The Arne Richter Awards for Outstanding ECS, the Union Service Award, and the Union medals are presented by the president during the EGU Awards Ceremony at the General Assembly, while the division medals are presented by the respective division presidents at the beginning of the medal lectures in question. The Union and division medallists, as well as the recipients of the Union Service Award, the Arne Richter Awards for Outstanding ECS, the division ECS, and the Krafft, Croome and Champion(s) for Equality, Diversity and Inclusion awards are introduced during the EGU Awards Ceremony. The presentation of the division ECS, the Krafft, and the Croome awards takes place at the beginning of the corresponding award lecture.

The Union presents a number of special awards, including the Outstanding Student and PhD candidate Presentation (OSPP) Award. The division OSPP Co-ordinators are nominated by the relevant division president and approved during the annual division meeting. The Council nominates an EGU OSPP Award Co-ordinator to supervise the programme groups’ OSPP Co-ordinators.

Criteria for application

Eligibility for the Outstanding Student and PhD candidate Presentation (OSPP) Award is limited to participants who:

• are first author and personally present a poster or PICO at the conference; and
• satisfy one of the following criteria:
  • are a current BSc or MSc student or PhD candidate; or
  • are a recent BSc or MSc student or PhD candidate (conferral of degree after 1 January of the year of the conference) who are presenting their thesis work.

Please note that each first author can register only one abstract (poster or PICO) for the OSPP contest at the General Assembly.

Application procedure

With the letter of schedule, authors are informed about the final form of their presentation: oral, poster, or PICO. In case of poster or PICO, students fulfilling the above criteria can register for OSPP by selecting the respective link in the letter of schedule. In case of more than one poster and/or PICO presentation as a first author, students are asked to decide which presentation should be included in the OSPP contest. The student names are then forwarded to the OSPP Co-ordinators of the respective programme group. Authors receive a confirmation email after the OSPP registration deadline (which is about two weeks after the letter of schedule).

Selection procedure

Candidates for the OSPP award attach the OSPP label (blue PNG, yellow PNG) to their presentation material.

In addition, they can download a QR code of their online presentation page at the bottom of that page and include the QR code in their PICO or poster presentation.

In case that a judge was not able to attend the PICO or poster presentation, the uploaded supplementary material may be reverted to in exceptional cases. It is therefore mandatory for all OSPP participants to upload supplementary material file(s).

The OSPP Co-ordinator of each programme group informs all OSPP Contact Conveners about the OSPP abstracts to be judged in their session and asks them to nominate at least three judges for each presentation before the meeting. The conveners should obtain prior consent from the judges or select judges from the list of volunteers provided in the OSPP Nominator Tool. Conveners are explicitly invited to nominate themselves as judges within their session as long as they are not conflicted.

Evaluation forms for each OSPP presentation will then be made available to all judges via a personal link to the OSPP online system. These forms include a number of criteria to be evaluated by the judges. Criteria include the scientific quality of the presentation, the design, and the student’s ability to answer questions, with marks given from 0 to 10.

The judges evaluate the presentations at the General Assembly during the poster session or the PICO viewing time, respectively. Note that the two-minute presentation of PICOs is not part of the award evaluation. Each judge is expected to interact with the applicant during the poster/PICO session because this both guarantees some extra attendance and because the applicant’s ability to describe and defend their work is part of the OSPP evaluation criteria. The judges are asked to work confidentially. The judges then fill in the evaluation forms online.

In addition, all registered EGU participants are invited to vote on OSPP presentations, as long as they are neither BSc or MSc students or PhD candidates themselves, are not participating in OSPP, are not a co-author of the presentation, and do not share the same affiliation as the first author. The link to the evaluation form is directly available on the online presentation page for easy access.

After the General Assembly, each programme group’s OSPP Co-ordinator proposes a ranking among all the participating posters and PICOs (one combined list) in the programme group based on average marks that are automatically compiled from all evaluation forms and based on diversity criteria. The number of awards in each division should depend on the quality and the number of participating presentations that year. In general, the number of awards should be small to keep the contest competitive and the award a special distinction. The OSPP Co-ordinator and the division president decide on the awards based on the ranking no later than two months after the General Assembly.

Please confer the OSPP overview page for possible changes in the contest regulations for this year.

Award presentation

Each awardee is notified by the EGU OSPP Award Co-ordinator. Awardees are asked to submit a short statement on affiliation and research interests (two to three sentences), a portrait photo, and their PICO presentation or a PDF of their poster to the EGU Office. The information is published on the EGU OSPP Awards section of the website. The awardees receive a conference fee waiver for the next EGU General Assembly and are invited to submit a paper (of which the awardee is first author) free of publication costs to one of the EGU journals. At the respective division meeting held at the next General Assembly, each awardee receives an award certificate.