Since 2006, the EFCE presents a biennial Excellence Award to recognise a PhD thesis or papers published in the preceding three-year period, demonstrating outstanding contributions to research and/or practice in CAPE. The award comprises:

  • A plaque/certificate;
  • A cash award of € 1’500,00;
  • A travel grant (not exceeding € 500,00) to attend the CAPE Symposium where the award will be presented.

The award will be presented during a Plenary Session of the biennial (even-numbered) CAPE Symposium.

Eligibility

  • The award is presented to researchers or engineers in the early stage of their careers, who have made excellent contributions to CAPE in the process industries.
  • Nominations may be submitted by PhD supervisors at a PhD-awarding institution in an EFCE member country, or Members of a national or regional member association of EFCE.
  • Self-nominations are excluded.
  • No more than one nomination can be submitted by the same person.
  • The nominated PhD thesis or publication must address a topic relevant to the field of CAPE.
  • The nominated PhD thesis or publication must have been published during the three calendar years preceding the closing date for nominations.
  • The nominated PhD thesis must have been completed and published and the PhD degree examined and awarded.

Nomination procedure, supporting documentation and closing date

  • Nominations should be submitted as PDF files via email to the e-mail/address indicated at the EFCE and/or CAPE-WP webpages (currently “Excellence award committee” (honndorf@dechema.de)
  • Supporting documentation: nominations should be submitted as a single package and must contain the following information:
    • Name and address of nominee
    • Name and address of nominator
    • Title of the publication
    • Date work commenced
    • Two letters of recommendation (no more than two pages each), from two independent referees outlining the key contribution to CAPE and stating clearly why the contribution is considered to be truly outstanding and thus deserving the Excellence Award.
    • In the case of nominating a PhD thesis an extended abstract in English (maximum 10 pages) containing the following information must be included:
  • summary,
  • problem addressed,
  • state of the art,
  • key innovations,
  • applications, implementations and results,
  • references,
  • upon request, a copy of the thesis, as published (this will be returned after the evaluation is completed)

Note that all of the above documentation must be submitted together as a complete package. Except for the PhD thesis, all other documents should be submitted electronically. PhD thesis should be sent only when requested. Nominations which do not conform to these requirements will be rejected.

  • Deadline: nominations must be submitted to reach the Excellence Award Committee no later than December 31st of the odd-numbered year before the CAPE Symposium (or another suitable deadline).

Late nominations will be rejected.

Evaluation procedure and timing

 The evaluation will be a two-step process:

  • Step 1: a sub-committee of the EFCE CAPE Working Party/Section (WP/S Jury) will review the documents provided in support of the nominations from the PhD supervisor, make a scientific evaluation of the submitted proposals and select the most eligible candidate. Nominations can be rejected due to insufficient documentation as compared to the published criteria. The committee is not required to research additional documents which have not be supplied, but may compile more information from other sources. The chairman of the WP/S Jury will write a selection report and submit it to the STEP 2 committee for confirmation. The report outlines the nomination and selection process and justifies the ranked short list of the most prize – worthy candidates.
  • Step 2: A representative of the EFCE Executive Board, the chair of the Working Party/Section, and the chair or a representative of the Education Working Party will review the short-listed candidates and selection report. The primary task of the STEP 2 committee is to ensure that the selection process has been run professionally, unbiased and to a high scientific standard. The STEP 2 committee may request additional information from the WP/S Jury and can return the short list to the WP/S Jury for reconsideration.

The decisions of these committees are final and no discussions of any kind will be entered into.

Publication of selected work

The successful candidate will be invited to make a presentation at the ESCAPE Event at which the Award is presented. He/she will be also invited to prepare a paper for publication (based on the extended abstract) as a “guest paper” in Computers & Chemical Engineering.

Documentation

Download PDF with rules and procedures 20190614 – Subpart of Rules – PhD.