CALL: BayCEER Bridge Builder Prize
for Master Graduates

In the disciplines of Ecology and Environmental Research at the University of Bayreuth excellent scientific work is done by Master and PhD students, more than a few being awarded with prizes by scientific associations at conferences in their disciplines.

As BayCEER´s intention is to bring together researchers from different disciplines and to help making scientific results available to stakeholders outside academia, the BayCEER Bridge Builder Prize values the efforts associated with working at the interface between different scientific disciplines, research and practice, or different countries and cultures, as research on ecological and environmental issues should not end at national borders.

BayCEER encourages the establishment of regional and international networks and supports scientists at different stages of their career, from the very young to senior scientists. The BayCEER Bridge Builder Prize values young scientists, who already built bridges during their Master thesis.

Motivation

Your Master thesis is done, the science is evaluated, the books are packed away. But did anyone appreciate the real challenges behind it and see the bridges you had to build to succeed?

This prize is introduced to value your work as a "Bridge Builder" during your research. Tell us what you did to succesfully bridge

• different disciplines
• science and practice
• different cultures

Tell us about the general set-up of your Master thesis to identify your involvement in bridge building: Have you collaborated with people beyond the working group of your main supervisor? Maybe also with experts outside the academic realm? Have you left your home country to get your work done?

Prize Value

The greatest value of the prize is not easy to measure: it is meant to motivate and help awardees in their careers within or outside academia. Besides honor and prize certificate the prizes are valued as follows:

• Golden Bridge: 250 Euro
• Silver Bridge: 150 Euro
• Bronze Bridge: 100 Euro
  

Requirements

Master students/graduates who submitted their thesis from September 2015 onwards and whose thesis was graded 2.0 or better can apply. If the grade is not yet fixed at the date of application, this is no obstacle. Master graduates who refrained from an application in 2015 due to a missing grade should contact us.

Based on the application, three Master students/graduates will be nominated for the final stage. The final evaluation will take place at the BayCEER Workshop on October 13 where the three nominees will be asked to present their research.
So be sure to have time to present your work there!

Application

The application is included in the online registration for the BayCEER Workshop 2015. It is no problem to register for the workshop before finalizing in the application - additions are possible on the internal workshop website using your personal access data until 19 September 2016. The following points are required in the application form (compare screenshots from 2015):

• Structured abstract of your Master thesis
  (Introduction, Material and Methods, Results, Conclusions - max. 2000 characters)
• Some facts related to your Master thesis
• Different criteria related to your work as Bridge Builder
  - grouped into Bridges between disciplines, Bridges into practice and Bridges between nations and cultures (you only fill in what was relevant in your case)
• A description of your biggest challenge and how you coped with that

Evaluation and Nomination

A jury of five senior scientists from different disciplines in BayCEER will evaluate and rank the applications. Three candidates are then invited to present their work in a short talk at the BayCEER workshop. This is the basis for assigning the prizes. They will be handed over in the Award Session at the end of the workshop day.

Organization

The Bridge Builder Prize was invented and is organized by of mid-level faculty members of BayCEER and co-sponsored by the Alumni association BcG Alumni e.V. For questions, please refer to Birgit Thies, BayCEER Office.