ESB Award Regulations
European Society of Biomechanics Awards Regulations
Award Categories
Huiskes Medal for Biomechanics
Best Doctoral thesis in Biomechanics
Huiskes Medal for Biomechanics
1. General
1.1 This award is given every odd year (ESB Congress in 2021, 2023 etc) to a researcher with an outstanding research track record in biomechanics based on the selection made by an Award Committee.
1.2 The award will consist of a medal and will cover expenses required to attend the conference (travel, accommodation, registration fee, banquet).
1.3 To this purpose funds will be provided by the ESB treasurer. However, the sponsorship of another Institution or person may be accepted upon formal approval of the Council.
2. Nomination procedure
2.1 The call for nomination will be advertised in the Journal of Biomechanics, by email to the ESB members and other distribution lists as well as on the ESB Web page.
2.2 The deadline will typically be from nine to six months before the ESB Congress.
2.3 Nominations must be submitted electronically by at least two ESB members to the Chair of the ESB Awards Committee.
2.4 Candidate nominations in consideration for the Huiskes Medal for Biomechanics should include:
- a letter of nomination that highlights, in maximum 2 pages, the candidate’s career achievements and contributions to biomechanics. The nomination letter should have the following structure and contents:
- the pioneering, game changing, and/or translational aspects of the research of the candidate, including explicit references to seminal journal articles
- the impact that the specificity of the Nominee research have had on the biomechanics community, and in specific fields of science, technology and/or medicine
- Role in scientific societies, founding research groups, service to the scientific community, international acknowledgement, ability to inspire excellent scientists
- a full publication list, or a link to an up-to-date online publication list.
3. Eligibility
3.1 The candidate must have contributed significantly to the knowledge in the field of biomechanics.
3.2 To avoid any conflict of interest recent members of the ESB council (in the past 4 years) and/or the appointment committee are not eligible for nomination for this award.
3.3 The competition is not restricted to ESB members.
4. Award Committee
4.1 Selection among the nominations will be made by the Award Committee, exclusively for this purpose.
4.1 The Award Committee is appointed by the Council and includes the following members: Vice-President (ex officio, Chairperson), President (ex officio), at least one member of the ESB Council, two of the most recent Awardees (depending on availability), and up to 10 additional independent senior researchers.
4.2 The Committee will have a minimum of seven and maximum of thirteen members. Members must disclose to the Council any potential conflict of interest (e.g. either nominating or submitting for the award or a former mentor or mentee). Members in conflict will be excused from participation in the assessment of the award.
4.3 The Chairperson of the Award Committee is a non-voting member of the Award Committee but is responsible for administrating the process.
5. Selection procedures
5.1 Evaluation is made in two rounds.
5.2 First, each committee member independently reviews the appropriate material (CV and nomination letters) and submits his/her score electronically to the Chair without discussion amongst the other committee members.
5.3 Then, if the average ranking is similar for two or more candidates, a second round of assessment on this sub-group of nominees will take place, including discussion (via e-mail or skype) within the Committee.
5.4 The recipient of the award will be determined via the highest average score as tabulated by the Chair. If the final scoring is identical for two or more candidates, the Chair of the Award Committee will make a final decision
5.5 The response time for evaluation of the submitted proposals will be three months and the winner will be notified approximately three months before the Congress.
6. Presentation
6.1 The winner of the Huiskes Medal must attend the ESB Congress and is invited to present a plenary keynote lecture (typically 40-50 minutes in a 60 min plenary session) at the time designated by the Program Committee of each Congress.
6.2 The Medal will be presented to the awardee at the end of the plenary keynote lecture.
Stephan M. Perren Research Award
1. General
1.1 At every ESB Congress held on even years, an award will be given to an original research paper based on the selection made by an Award Committee.
1.2 The award will consist of a) a certificate, and b) CHF 4,000.
1.3 The monetary prize will be provided by the AO Foundation in Davos, Switzerland.
2. Application procedure
2.1 The call will be disseminated through the ESB webpage, social media, and by email to the ESB members, at least six months before the ESB Congress.
2.2 The deadline will typically four months ahead of the ESB Congress.
2.3 Authors will submit their paper to be considered for the Stephan M. Perren award through the portal of the Journal of their choice. They are requested to inform the Chair of the Award Committee of their intention to submit, including the name of the chosen journal. The latter shall have an established good reputation, demonstrated by the overall quality of the publisher, the editorial process, and/or the Journal Citation Report (JCR). In any case, the Authors bear the entire responsibility to avoid predatory journals. Further information is reported in the ESB Related Publications webpage.
2.4 The submitted paper must comply with the guidelines of the chosen journal, and the Authors must duly inform the Editorial Board about the nature and the specificity of the submission. They shall recommend the members of the ESB Council, who present no conflicts of interest, as potential reviewers. The Authors are strongly advised to use the text proposed by the ESB for the Letter to the Editor: See Stephan M. Perren Award – Letter to the Editor.
2.5 Once the paper is submitted, the Authors must send by email to the Chair of the ESB Award Committee: (i) the submitted manuscript; (ii) the Letter to the Editor; (iii) the name and contact of the handling Editor. The Award Committee will keep the material strictly confidential, and use it exclusively for evaluation purposes.
2.6 The Chair of the Award Committee shall contact the handling editor to confirm the consideration of the submitted manuscript for the Stephan M. Perren Research Award.
3. Eligibility
3.1 All original manuscripts (written in English) in the fields of biomechanics and/or mechanobiology, which have not been published before, are eligible for the Stephan M. Perren Award. Failure to comply with rules 2.4 and 2.5 will disqualify the manuscript for the Award.
3.2 The competition is not restricted to ESB members but if the winner is not a member, membership will be encouraged by the Award Committee Chair.
3.3 Papers authored or co-authored by Award Committee members are not eligible (see rule 4.1).
4. Award Committee
4.1 The Award Committee is appointed by the Council and consists of the following members: Vice-President and Chair of the Award Committee of the ESB (ex officio, Chairperson); the President (ex officio) of the ESB; the Secretary-General (ex officio) of the ESB; two to four ESB Council members; up to three previous awardees; up to four other ESB members. One member of the Award Committee may be appointed by the AO Foundation, being nominated by the AO Executive Director AO R&D.
4.2 The Committee will have a minimum of five and a maximum of thirteen members (depending on the number of papers to be evaluated, and on the different areas involved). Members must disclose to the Chairperson any potential conflict of interest (e.g. either nominating or submitting for the award or a former mentor or mentee). Members in conflict will be excused from participation in the assessment of the award.
4.3 The Chair of the Award Committee is a non-voting member of the Award Committee but is responsible for administrating the process. He/she is responsible for providing peer-review comments to the other committee members by having each manuscript reviewed by at least two to three authorities in the field of the manuscript. The reviewers shall be appointed by the Handling Editor of the journal chosen by the Authors (see rule 2.3), and conduct their reviews in compliance with regulations of that journal. Should they coincide with any of the predefined members of the Award Committee (see rule 4.1), these members shall automatically become non-voting members of the Committee.
4.4 Each committee member independently reviews the appropriate material (manuscript and comments provided by peer review) and submits his/her score electronically to the Chair without discussion amongst the other committee members. The recipient of the award will be determined via the highest average score as tabulated by the Chair. If an average ranking is identical for two or more candidates, the Chairperson of the Award Committee will make a final decision.
5. Selection procedures
5.1 Selection will be made by the Award Committee from original manuscripts submitted electronically by one or more authors, exclusively for the purpose of the Stephan M. Perren Research Award.
5.2 The first round of evaluation is performed similar to regular papers, by peer reviewers invited by the Handling Editor of the journal chosen by the Authors.
5.3 After the first round of evaluation, the Authors will send the peer-review comments and the Editor letter to the ESB Award committee. The members of the latter will the evaluate the contents, to choose a winner, according to rule 4.4.
5.4 The response time for evaluation of the submitted proposals will be three months and the winner will be notified approximately one month before the Congress.
6. Presentation
6.1 An oral presentation of the award-receiving paper will also be scheduled during the Congress as a plenary lecture (typically 40-50 minutes in a dedicated plenary session).
6.2 The award will be presented at a time designated by the Program Committee of each Congress (typically at the end of the Stephan M. Perren Award session, or at the Conference Banquet).
6.3 The members of ESB will be informed about the winners by circulation in the ESB Newsletter, as well as by an announcement on the ESB webpage.
6.4 ESB aims at publishing the winning manuscript as an award paper in the journal chosen the Authors. This process will be handled by the Publication Committee, in coordination with the ESB Awards Chair, the Authors and the Editor of the chosen journal.
Early Career Research Award
1. General
1.1 At every ESB Congress, the ESB Early Career Researcher Award recognises the development of an outstanding young researcher who’s early research career contributes to the advancement of the theory and/or applications of Biomechanics, based on the selection made by an Award Committee.
1.2 The award will consist of a certificate and a honorarium of 3,500 €. The latter should cover specific costs associated to the activities of the Awardee (e.g. consulting support to write grants, mobility, open access fees for publications…).
1.3 To this purpose funds will be provided by the ESB treasurer. However, the sponsorship of another institution or person may be accepted upon formal approval of the Council.
2. Application procedure
2.1 Award candidatures will be received through the abstract submission portal of the ESB Congress.
2.2 Applications must include:
- An abstract submitted abstract to the yearly ESB conference
- A narrative CV (2 pages, see template)
- A letter to describe how the award will be used
2.3 All submitted documents must be in English. Please use only PDF format. The files should be named as: lastname_firstname_documentname.pdf
3. Eligibility
3.1 Researchers who have defended their PhD from 2 to 7 years at the date of the ESB conference (considering career breaks due to pregnancy, illness or other reasons).
3.2 The applicant must be an ESB member in good standing, and must be a member of the ESB from at least six months before the deadline for applying for this Award.
4. Award Committee
4.1 The Award Committee is appointed by the Council and includes the following members: Vice-President (ex officio, Chairperson), President (ex officio), Secretary-General (ex officio), two to four other members.
4.2 The Committee will have a minimum of five and maximum of seven members. Members must disclose to the Council any potential conflict of interest (e.g. ongoing professional relationship, current mentor or mentor in the last two years, at the submission deadline). Members in conflict will be excused from participation in the assessment of the award.
4.3 The Chair of the Committee is a non-voting member of the Award Committee, but is responsible for administrating the process.
5. Selection procedures
5.1 Applications not meeting one or more of the eligibility criteria will not be considered any further.
5.2 Selection is made by the Award committee, in two phases.
5.3 The pre-selection phase reduces the number of candidates, as is based upon (i) the submitted abstract, (ii) the narrative CV, according to the provided template.
5.4 A total of three finalists will typically be selected for more detailed examination in the decisive assessment round, including the letter about the use of the honorarium.
5.5 One single winner and max one runner up will be indicated at the end of the process.
5.6 The Award Committee may also decide to propose no candidate if the selection criteria are not considered to have been met.
5.7 The response time for evaluation of the submitted proposals will be three months and the winner will be notified approximately three months before the Congress.
6. Presentation
6.1 The winner will also be requested to present an award plenary lecture at the ESB Congress (typically 20 minutes slot in a plenary award session shared with the Best Doctoral Thesis Award in Biomechanics).
6.2 The award will be presented at a time designated by the Program Committee of each Congress (typically at the end of the Presentation, or at the Conference Banquet or during the Closing Ceremony).
6.3 The awardees must send to the Chair of the ESB Award Committee a signed commitment letter that if the awarded work is eventually published in a journal article, the Award shall be explicitly and duly acknowledged in the Acknowledgement section of the Journal article (Typically: “The European Society of Biomechanics (ESB) is acknowledged, as this work received the ESB Early Career Research Award, at the [NUMBER] Congress of the ESB, [CITY], [COUNTRY], [DATE]“).
6.4 The award money will be transferred to the winner shortly after the congress, via bank transfer.
6.5 The members of ESB will be informed about the winner by circulation in the ESB Newsletter as well as by an announcement on the ESB webpage.
Best Doctoral Thesis in Biomechanics
1. General
1.1 At every ESB Congress an award will be given to an outstanding doctoral final thesis that has contributed to the advancement of the theory and/or applications of Biomechanics and/or mechanobiology, based on the selection made by an Award Committee.
1.2 The award will consist of a certificate, a prize of 2,000 €, and the payment of the Congress registration and banquet fees. Up to two runners-up will receive 250 € each.
1.3 To this purpose funds will be provided by the ESB treasurer. However, the sponsorship of another institution or person may be accepted upon formal approval of the Council.
2. Application procedure
2.1 Award candidatures will be solicited by email to the ESB members and other distribution lists as well as on the ESB web page at least six months before the Congress. One month before the submission deadline another round of advertisement should be conducted via the same channels of dissemination.
2.2 Applications must be submitted by email to the Chair of the ESB Awards Committee. The following documents should be attached:
(i) The application form, summarising the most relevant information about the PhD thesis (PDF, max 2 pages),
(ii) Letter of recommendation from the supervisor(s) stating that the student has officially been awarded his/her Doctoral degree, and the date of the thesis defence. The letter must outline how and why the candidate is worthy of this European Society of Biomechanics distinction. In case of multiple letters, these should be assembled as a single file.
(iii) Letter of endorsement from an independent scientist (i.e. who did not have major interactions or publications with the Candidate) in the field of Biomechanics endorsing the novelty and the biomechanical significance of the work. In case of multiple letters, these should be assembled as a single file.
(iv) A complete CV (typically 2-4 pages). A list of publications should be appended at the end of the CV (does not count towards the page limit).
(v) The complete final PhD thesis (PDF format, max 10 MB)
(vi) The Abstract alone (as a separate PDF file, typically 1-4 pages)
2.3 All submitted documents must be in English. Please use only PDF format. The files should be named as: lastname_firstname_documentname.pdf
2.4 Applying for the Doctoral Award does not automatically imply that the paper will be presented during the ESB yearly congress: only the award winner will present his/her work in a dedicated plenary lecture. Those wishing to submit a paper for the ESB yearly congress, should do so through the Congress portal, as a separate process.
3. Eligibility
3.1 All original theses (written in English) in the field of Biomechanics and/or mechanobiology are eligible.
3.2 The applicant must be an ESB member in good standing by time of the deadline, for applying for this Award.
3.3 Eligible doctoral candidates are those that defended their thesis within the calendar year prior to abstract submission deadline of the ESB congress.
3.4 Participants for this award can independently apply for other awards like the travel award if they also submit an abstract. However, the final winner of the Doctoral thesis award will not also receive a travel award on top of the award money for the doctoral award.
4. Award Committee
4.1 The Award Committee is appointed by the Council and includes the following members: Vice-President (ex officio, Chairperson), Secretary-General (ex officio), the Education Chair (ex officio), two to four other members. The Council appoints the Award Committee at least six months prior to the ESB Congress.
4.2 The Committee will have a minimum of five and maximum of seven members. Members must disclose to the Council any potential conflict of interest (e.g. either nominating a mentee for the award or co-authoring papers with the mentee on the PhD thesis subject). Members in conflict will be excused from participation in the assessment of the award. Theses directly supervised by the Award Committee members are not eligible.
4.3 The Chair of the Committee is a non-voting member of the Award Committee, but is responsible for administrating the process.
5. Selection procedures
5.1 Applications not meeting one or more of the eligibility criteria will not be considered any further.
5.2 Selection is made by the Award committee, in two phases.
5.3 The pre-selection phase reduces the number of candidates, as is based upon (i) the application form which contains a template specifying all the basic information needed by the committee for pre-screening the candidates, and (ii) a letter of recommendation from the supervisor outlining how and why the candidate is worthy of this European Society of Biomechanics distinction. A total of 4-6 candidates will typically be selected for more detailed examination in the final assessment round.
5.4 In the final assessment round, judging shall be based on overall quality of the candidate as shown by: i) Doctoral Thesis, ii) candidate’s CV – including list of publications in journals and conference proceedings generated by the research reported in the Doctoral Thesis, iii) reference letter(s). Additionally, a research experience (minimum one month) in a European country different from that where the Doctoral Degree has been awarded will be judged favourably.
5.5 One single winner and up to two runners-up will be indicated at the end of the process.
5.6 The Award Committee may also decide to propose no candidate if the selection criteria are not considered to have been met.
5.7 The response time for evaluation of the submitted proposals will be three months and the winner will be notified approximately one month before the Congress.
6. Presentation
6.1 A presentation of the award receiving Doctoral Award will be scheduled during the Congress as a plenary lecture (typically 20 minutes slot in a plenary award session shared with the Early Career Research award).
6.2 The award will be presented at a time designated by the Program Committee of each Congress (typically at the end of the Presentation, or at the Conference Banquet or during the Closing Ceremony).
6.3 The award money will be transferred to the winner and runners-up shortly after the congress, via bank transfer.
6.4 The members of ESB will be informed about the winner by circulation in the ESB Newsletter as well as by an announcement on the ESB web page.
Clinical Biomechanics Award
1. General
1.1 ESB establishes a Clinical Biomechanics Award with the purpose of fostering the application of Biomechanics to clinically oriented problems.
1.2 The award is biennial and is given on even calendar years (ESB Congress in 2020, 2022 etc).
1.3 The Clinical Biomechanics Award will be given to an abstract submitted to the ESB conference, based on explicit application to the Award and further selection made by an ad hoc Award Committee.
1.4 The award consists of a certificate and 1000 €.
1.5 To this purpose funds will be provided by the ESB Treasurer. However, the sponsorship of another Institution or person may be accepted upon formal approval of the Council.
2. Application
2.1 The deadline for applying for the Clinical Biomechanics award is the same as for the submission of all the abstracts for the yearly ESB Congress.
2.2 Applicants must submit their application for the Clinical Biomechanics award at the time of abstract submission set by the Congress organizers, through the Congress Portal by selecting this award among the possible options. Applications are then automatically forwarded to the Chair of the Award Committee.
2.3 Each abstract can only be submitted for one Award. Therefore, the same abstract cannot contest for more than one of Clinical Biomechanics, Student award or Travel Award.
3. Eligibility
3.1 All original papers submitted and accepted for oral presentation at an ESB Congress in the field of Clinical Biomechanics are eligible. Previously published work is not eligible for the Clinical Biomechanics award.
3.2 The first and presenting author must be a member of the ESB in good standing at the time of application for this Award (IMPORTANT: see the rules for membership applications concerning last minute applications).
3.3 Papers authored or co-authored by ESB Council members or Award Committee members are not eligible.
4. Award Committee
4.1 The Council appoints an Award Committee at least four months prior to the ESB Congress.
4.2 The Committee consists of a minimum of five and a maximum of seven members. Among them there must be at least one ESB Council members, and at least one person involved in the organization of the Congress.
4.3 Members must disclose to the Council any potential conflict of interest (e.g. either nominating or submitting for the award or a former mentor or mentee). Members in conflict will be excused from participation in the assessment of the award.
4.4 The Chair of the Committee must be an ESB Council member and is appointed by the Council. He/she is a non-voting member of the Award Committee but is responsible for administrating the process.
5. Selection
5.1 Applications not meeting one or more of the eligibility criteria will not be considered any further.
5.2 The Scientific Committee of the Congress will carry out a pre-selection based exclusively on the assessment of the clinical relevance of the paper submitted through the Congress portal.
5.3 Further selection of four finalists will be carried out before the Congress by the Award Committee based on scientific excellence, clinical relevance and diversity of subject areas of the pre-selected abstracts.
5.4 The first authors of the papers selected for the final competition will be informed of this circumstance. These papers will be scheduled for presentation in a designated session of the Congress.
5.5 The final selection of the Clinical Biomechanics award paper will be made by the Committee during the Congress, based on the abstract material and on the podium presentation.
5.6 Detailed rating criteria and scoresheets will be provided to the Committee members by the Committee Chair.
6. Presentation
6.1 The award presentation will take place during the Closing Ceremony or the Banquet of the Congress according to a protocol decided by the Congress organizers.
6.2 The awardees must send to the Chair of the ESB Award Committee a signed commitment letter that if the awarded work is eventually published in a journal article, the Award shall be explicitly and duly acknowledged in the Acknowledgement section of the Journal article (Typically: “The European Society of Biomechanics (ESB) is acknowledged, as this work received the ESB Clinical Biomechanics Award, at the [NUMBER] Congress of the ESB, [CITY], [COUNTRY], [DATE]“). See the ESB Related Publications webpage, for detail.
6.3 The award money will be transferred to the winner shortly after the congress, via bank transfer.
6.4 The members of ESB will be informed about the winners by circulation in the ESB Newsletter, as well as by an announcement on the ESB web page.
Student Award
1. General
1.1 ESB establishes Student Awards with the purpose to honour excellence in biomechanics already at a relatively young age.
1.2 At every ESB Congress one first prize Student Award and three runners-up Awards will be given to four students at the ESB Congress.
1.3 The award consists of a certificate for each finalist, a prize of 1000 € for the first place, and 400 € for the three runners-up.
1.4 To this purpose funds will be provided by the ESB treasurer. However, the sponsorship of another institution or person may be accepted upon formal approval of the Council.
2. Application
2.1 The deadline for applying for the Student award is the same as for the submission of all the abstracts for the yearly ESB Congress.
2.2 Applicants should submit their application for the Student award at the time of abstract submission set by the Congress organizers, through the Congress Portal by selecting this award among the possible options. Applications are then automatically forwarded to the Chair of the Award Committee.
2.3 The application must include:
(i) a brief CV (between 1 and four pages)
(ii) a letter by the student supervisor including an award nomination and a statement that the student is officially enrolled in a University program.
These two documents must be assembled as a single pdf and must be uploaded through the congress portal at the time of abstract submission.
2.4 Each abstract can only be submitted for one Award. Therefore, the same abstract cannot contest for more than one of Clinical Biomechanics, Student award or Travel Award.
3. Eligibility
3.1 All original papers (abstracts) submitted by a student and accepted at an ESB Congress in any field of biomechanics are eligible.
3.2 The applicant must be the first author of the abstract, and the presenting author of the paper.
3.3 The applicant must be an ESB member in good standing at the time of the deadline for applying for this Award (IMPORTANT: see the rules for membership applications concerning last minute applications).
3.4 Papers authored or co-authored by Award Committee members are eligible.
4. Award Committee
4.1 The Council appoints an Award Committee at least six months prior to the ESB Congress.
4.2 It consists of a minimum of five and a maximum of seven members. Among them there must be at least one ESB Council member and at least one person involved in the organization of the Congress. Members must disclose to the Council any potential conflict of interest (e.g. either nominating or submitting for the award or a former mentor or mentee). Members in conflict will be excused from participation in the assessment of the award.
4.3 The Chair of the Committee must be an ESB Council member and is appointed by the Council. He/she is a non-voting member of the Award Committee but is responsible for administrating the process.
5. Selection
5.1 Applications not meeting one or more of the eligibility criteria will not be considered any further.
5.2 The abstracts submitted for the Student award will first undergo regular peer reviewing and scoring together with all Congress Abstracts.
5.3 Based on the scores assigned to the abstracts during the peer-review, the Chair of the Committee will extract a first shortlist of highest-scoring papers (typically 10-20), based exclusively on the assessment of the scientific content.
5.4 Further selection of the four finalists will be carried out before the Congress by the Award Committee based on the abstracts (scientific quality and biomechanical relevance) and on the support letter. Gender balance and diversity of scientific areas will be taken in consideration.
5.5 The authors of the papers selected for the final competition will be informed of this circumstance. These papers will be scheduled for presentation in a designated session of the Congress (normally a plenary session, with 10-15 minutes for each paper).
5.4 The final selection of the first prize award paper will be made after the Student Award session based on the votes expressed by the attendees (not necessarily ESB members):
- The voting procedure will be explained at the beginning of the session by the session chairs (typically the Chair of the Award Committee and/or the Chair of the Student Committee)
- Polls with the names and titles of the four finalists will be distributed to all the audience at the beginning of the session.
- Polls will not be distributed after the beginning of the first talk.
- Polls will be collected at the end of the last talk.
- Persons not attending the entire session will therefore not be able to vote.
- Votes will be counted by two members Award committee at the end of the session.
- The winner will not be announced during the Student Award session.
6. Presentation
6.1 The winner of the Student award will be announced during the General assembly and/or Banquet of the Congress or during the Closing Ceremony, according to a protocol decided by the Congress organizers.
6.2 The award presentation will take place during the Banquet of the Congress or during the Closing Ceremony, according to a protocol decided by the Congress organizers.
6.3 The awardees must send to the Chair of the ESB Award Committee a signed commitment letter that if the awarded work is eventually published in a journal article, the Award shall be explicitly and duly acknowledged in the Acknowledgement section of the Journal article (Typically: “The European Society of Biomechanics (ESB) is acknowledged, as this work received the ESB Student Award, at the [NUMBER] Congress of the ESB, [CITY], [COUNTRY], [DATE]” or “The European Society of Biomechanics (ESB) is acknowledged, as this work was nominated for a runner-up position for the ESB Student Award, at the [NUMBER] Congress of the ESB, [CITY], [COUNTRY], [DATE]“). See the ESB Related Publications webpage, for detail.
6.4 The award money will be transferred to the winner and to the runners-up shortly after the congress, via bank transfer.
6.5 The members of ESB will be informed about the winners by circulation in the ESB Newsletter as well as by an announcement on the ESB web page.
Poster Award
1. General
1.1 ESB establishes a Poster Award with the purpose of promoting the quality of poster presentations at ESB Congresses.
1.2 At every ESB Congress one Poster Award will be given to the best poster presentation based on the selection made by an ad hoc Award Committee.
1.3 The Award consists of a certificate and 300 €.
1.4 To this purpose funds will be provided by the ESB Treasurer. However, the sponsorship of another Institution or person may be accepted upon formal approval of the Council.
2. Application
2.1 There is no specific application to the ESB Poster Award. Any abstract first authored by an ESB member, submitted to the yearly ESB Congress, and accepted for poster presentation can be nominated.
2.2 Each abstract can only be considered for one Award. Therefore, the same abstract cannot be nominated for both the Poster and the Travel Award.
3. Eligibility
3.1 All original papers (abstracts) submitted and accepted for poster presentation at an ESB Congress in any field of biomechanics and/or mechanobiology are eligible.
3.2 The nominated author must be the first author of the abstract, and the presenting author of the poster.
3.3 The nominated author must be an ESB member in good standing at the time of the deadline for abstract submission.
3.4 Papers authored or co-authored by Council members or Award Committee members are eligible.
4. Award Committee
4.1 The Council appoints an Award Committee at least four months prior to the ESB Congress.
4.2 It consists of a minimum of five and maximum of seven members. Among them there must be at least one ESB Council member and at least one person involved in the organization of the Congress. Members must disclose to the Council any potential conflict of interest (e.g. either nominating or submitting for the award or a former mentor or mentee). Members in conflict will be excused from participation in the assessment of the award.
4.3 The Chair of the Committee must be an ESB Council member and is appointed by the Council. He/she is a non-voting member of the Award Committee but is responsible for administrating the process.
5. Selection
5.1 Applications not meeting one or more of the eligibility criteria will not be considered any further.
5.2 The abstracts submitted for the Poster award will first undergo regular peer reviewing and scoring together with all Congress Abstracts.
5.3 Based on the scores assigned to the abstracts during the peer-review, the Chair of the Committee will extract a shortlist of the highest-scoring posters (typically 25% to 50% of the total posters, depending on the total number and on the details of the previous peer-review). Gender balance and diversity of scientific areas will be considered.
5.4 The authors of the papers shortlisted for the final competition will be informed of this circumstance at least two weeks before the Congress.
5.5 Detailed rating criteria and scoresheets will be provided to the Committee members by the Committee Chair.
5.6 The final selection of the first prize award poster will be made by the Poster Committee (anonymously, divided to cover the different areas and sub-sessions) during the poster session. Scientific quality of the paper, graphic quality of the poster, and quality of the interaction with the presenting author will be considered.
5.7 The Chair of the Poster committee will identify the winner based on the highest score reported by the Committee members. In case of more posters reporting identical scores, ex aequo assignment of the award is possible. Up to three winners can be identified in this case (with equal amounts of 300€ each).
6. Presentation
6.1 The announcement of the winner and the award presentation will take place during the Congress Banquet or the Closing Ceremony of the Congress, according to a protocol decided by the Congress organizers.
6.2 The award money will be transferred to the winner and to the runners-up shortly after the congress, via bank transfer.
6.3 The members of ESB will be informed about the winners by circulation in the ESB Newsletter as well as by an announcement on the ESB web page.
Travel Awards
1. General
1.1 ESB establishes Travel Awards with the purpose of allowing young researchers to participate at the next upcoming ESB Congress with priority to researchers from countries with low income (based on GDP per capita).
1.2 For every ESB Congress a number of Travel Awards (the number is set by the financial conditions each time) will be given to the worthiest applicant(s) based on the selection made by an ad hoc Award Committee.
1.3 The Award consists of a certificate and an amount of 400 €.
1.4 To this purpose funds will be provided by the ESB Treasurer. However, the sponsorship of another Institution or person may be accepted upon formal approval of the Council.
2. Application
2.1 The deadline for applying for the Travel award is the same as for the submission of all the abstracts for the yearly ESB Congress.
2.2 Applicants should submit their application for the Travel award at the time of abstract submission set by the Congress organizers, through the Congress Portal by selecting this award among the possible options. Applications are then automatically forwarded to the Chair of the Award Committee.
2.3 Electronic applications must include a Cover Letter (to be submitted through the Congress Portal at the same time of abstract submission) briefly outlining and justifying why they are requesting a travel grant, disclosing that they have not received any ESB travel award in the past, and including the applicant’s curriculum vitae (max 2 pages). The letter should include the applicant’s full name, address, nationality, age, ESB membership status, information concerning his/her present position, name of his/her present institution, name and address of the academic adviser. As per the outline and justification of the travel grant request, the following information shall be included: (1) why they wish to apply for it; (2) what would be the benefit for the student; (3) how crucial it is to have to the travel award for participating to the conference.
2.4 Each abstract can only be submitted for one Award. Therefore, the same abstract cannot contest for more than one of Clinical Biomechanics, Student award or Travel Award.
3. Eligibility
3.1 Any young researcher (in all cases not older than 40 at the deadline for abstract submission) who is undertaking a Master, PhD or has not more than 5 years PostDoc experience, is eligible.
3.2 The applicant must be the first author of an abstract, and the presenting author of a paper accepted for an oral presentation at the upcoming ESB Congress.
3.3 The applicant must be an ESB member in good standing at the time of the deadline for applying for this Award (IMPORTANT: see the rules for membership applications concerning last minute applications).
3.4 Papers authored or co-authored by Council members or Award Committee members are eligible.
4. Award Committee
4.1 The Council appoints an Award Committee at least three months prior to the ESB Congress.
4.2 It consists of a minimum of four and maximum of seven members. Among them there must be at least one ESB Council member who establishes a prioritization list, to be validated by the rest of the members. Members must disclose to the Council any potential conflict of interest (e.g. either nominating or submitting for the award or a former mentor or mentee). Members in conflict will be excused from participation in the assessment of the award.
4.3 The Chair of the Committee must be an ESB Council member and is appointed by the Council. He/she is responsible for administrating the process.
5. Selection
5.1 Applications not meeting one or more of the eligibility criteria will not be considered any further.
5.2 The abstracts submitted for the Travel award will first undergo regular peer reviewing and scoring together with all Congress Abstracts.
5.3 Only papers accepted for an oral presentation will go to the following steps.
5.4 Based on the scores assigned to the abstracts during the peer-review, the Chair of the Committee will extract a shortlist of the highest-scoring papers (typically 20-40). Gender balance and diversity of scientific areas will be taken in consideration. Special consideration will be given to applicants from low-income country (while scientific merit still remains a criterion).
5.5 The Chair of the Committee will forward the shortlist, the respective abstracts and support material to the Committee members for final discussion and decision of the winners.
5.6 Detailed rating criteria and scoresheets will be provided to the Committee members by the Committee Chair.
5.7 The Committee will endeavour to provide notification of the awards in sufficient time for the awardees to apply for any required travel visa, and arrange Congress attendance.
5.8 One week before the conference at the latest, Awardees shall ask their respective supervisors to reach the Chair of the Award Committee and send a signed statement that acknowledges (i) their awareness of the amount of money granted to the Awardee, and (ii) that the award money will be effectively used to cover costs associated with the participation of the Awardee to the conference. Failure to comply with point 5.8 will automatically cancel the award.
6. Presentation
6.1 The award presentation will take place during the Closing Ceremony of the Congress or the Banquet according to a protocol decided by the Congress organizers.
6.2 The award money will be transferred to the winner and to the runners-up shortly after the congress, via bank transfer.
6.3 The members of ESB will be informed about the winners by circulation in the ESB Newsletter as well as by an announcement on the ESB web page.
