‘Early Career Researcher Prize’ Scientific Poster Competition Launched for 2014

The SWIG Early Career Researcher Prize is intended to raise awareness of technology development and novel applications related to water measurements and thereby promote innovation in sensor research and commercial application.

SWIG invites students and employees in the field of water sensor research to design a poster summarising their work. This is an opportunity for researchers within the water and environmental sectors to showcase their scientific talents and innovative thinking.

The competition is open to all ‘early career researchers’ to include undergraduate and postgraduate students either in full time education or within the first 4 years of employment within their area of expertise.

All posters passing to the final judging phase will be printed and displayed at the WWEM 2014 conference and exhibition in November, with the top 3 entrants being invited to give a short presentation as part of the seminar programme. The winner will be judged on the poster and presentation, and announced at the WWEM Gala Dinner.

The winner of the 2012 prize was Andy Nicholls of the University of Bradford, with his work on ‘Monitoring of Wastewater Flow by Remote Measurement of the Free Surface ‘Fingerprint’’. Andy says: "The SWIG early career researcher competition 2012 was great fun and it was fantastic to be selected as the winner. The award has enabled me to secure a post-doctoral position which will allow me to continue my research and develop the technology further. The event also generated a lot of interest in my research topic, and has opened several new avenues of collaborative work with partners both in industry and academia"  

Although submitted as high resolution pdf files, the final posters should be A1 in size and related to the topic of sensing the water environment. The subject may be experimental or theoretical in nature but must be based on original research. Posters should contain a short abstract (max 150 words) which provides a summary of the work. The authors of all posters passing to the final judging phase will have their posters printed and displayed at the Water, Wastewater & Environmental Monitoring (WWEM) exhibition on 5th and 6th November 2014 and the top 3 will be invited to give a short presentation on their work on the 5th November, as part of the conference programme. The winner will be judged on the poster and presentation,
and the winner announced at the WWEM Gala Dinner. Poster printing for all candidates and Gala Dinner attendance for the top 3 candidates will be funded by WWEM and travel expenses for the top 3 candidates will be funded by SWIG.

The value of the first prize is £1,000 and will be awarded to the author of the winning poster. The 2nd prize is £200 and the 3rd prize is £100. The closing date for submission is 5th September 2014. Posters should be related to the topic of sensing the water environment and may be experimental or theoretical in nature. The poster should be the work of one person. Academic supervisors or work colleagues may be named but should not be the primary author. The poster should be submitted as a high resolution pdf. Research is to be interpreted broadly but must include some original work. The competition will be judged by a panel made up from the Directors of SWIG. The Panel’s decision will be final. SWIG reserve the right to cancel the competition. The prize winner shall agree to their poster being published on the SWIG website. Shortlisted entrants shall agree to their posters being used by SWIG for promotion of the next ECR Competition in 2016.