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IARSA

Standing committee

Awards Committee

Formulates policy for the association's awards and honours, and selects the recipients subject to the approval of the Board.

The Awards Committee formulates policies and programmes for the association's awards and recommends the recipients to the Board of Directors.

The committee

  • Formulates general policies regarding awards and honours administered by the association, and submits those policies and specific recommendations for approval by the Board
  • Formulates a general programme designed to meet the needs of the association in the matter of awards and honours, as may be approved by the Board
  • Selects, subject to the approval of the Board, the recipients of the existing awards and honours

Membership

The chair is the Deputy President of the association, responsible for submitting nominations to the members of the committee, supervising the ballot vote and presenting the results to the Board. Membership totals six excluding the chair, and members serve three-year terms with two members turning over each year.

Members are nominated by the Executive Director, ratified by the Board and appointed by the President. Where a member is a nominee for one of the awards, they abstain from voting on that nomination, and the association's conflict of interest policy applies.

Criteria for membership

  • Members of the association in good standing, well aware of its basic operations and functions
  • A well recognized international reputation in the profession for their accomplishments
  • A membership that reflects the technical and geographical diversity of the association's membership

What counts as a conflict of interest

  • The member is from the same organization as the nominee
  • There is a family link between the member and the nominee
  • The member is a former research supervisor of, or has been a student of, the nominee within the past five years
  • The member has had a research grant or contract relationship with the nominee within the past five years
  • The member is uncomfortable participating in the deliberations because of previous conflicts or any other reason
  • The member is a nominee

How a conflict is handled

A committee member in a conflict of interest refrains from voting for that particular award. A member of the Board in a conflict refrains from any vote brought to the Governing Council by the Awards Chair for that award. Such a Board member may still present a section nomination to the Board when representing that section, but is absent from any discussion of the nomination unless the Council requests information deemed necessary for full consideration.

The voting process

  1. The Awards Chair, having ensured all conditions of the award are satisfied and the procedures followed, forwards the nomination and its supporting documentation to the committee.
  2. The committee reviews the submissions and the accompanying CVs or papers, and prepares a shortlist of candidates for each award.
  3. A teleconference is held and, if required, a list of questions is sent back to the original nominators, who may be asked for further endorsements or letters.
  4. Before voting, the committee discusses the shortlisted nominees and the answers to any questions.
  5. The nominations are put to a secret ballot. Each member ranks the candidates, and the ballot must include a 'no award' option.
  6. Following the vote the chair announces the results at a meeting of the committee for final discussion and approval. The candidate with the lowest score for each award is declared the winner.