DM 100,000 for the best presentation of science to the general public
For the first time the Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) has invited applications for a highly endowed personal award for scientists who have done an excellent job in presenting the results of their scientific work to the public. The Communicator Award is endowed with DM 100,000, funded by the Donors¹ Association for the Promotion of Sciences and Humanities in Germany.
While there is quite a number of awards for science journalists, and medical journalists in particular, there have so far been only few and specialised awards for scientists who succeed in presenting to the general public complex scientific themes and the societal and ethical issues that are frequently associated with them.
The DFG¹s new Communicator Award is addressed to scholars and scientists of all disciplines endeavouring to explain their research and its results in a generally comprehensible manner. This may be done by way of lectures, articles, exhibitions, films and other possible methods of presentation.
The award may be given to both individual scientists and groups of researchers who have co-operated in a project meeting the target requirements. Selection will focus on papers published in German.
A jury consisting of communication scientists, journalists, PR experts and selected scientists will decide on the winner.
The Award will be publicised and announced through DFG information networks, personal letters to the chancellors and presidents of German universities, the Hermann von Helmholtz Association of German Research Centres, the Fraunhofer Society, the Wissenschaftsgemeinschaft Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz as well as press advertisements. Candidates may be nominated or apply themselves.
Applications should contain informative documentation describing the candidates' communication achievement which can serve as a decision-making aid for the jury. If candidates apply themselves a written assessment by a second scientist will have to be added.
Applications should reach the Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft, Press and PR Section, Kennedyallee 40, D-53175 Bonn, Germany, no later than 15 December 1999.