The ISSFAL Early Career Award is intended to honour an investigator at an early stage of his or her career, and who has published significant research papers in the field of lipids and fatty acids. The prize (US$4,500 + registration to the awarding ISSFAL meeting) will be awarded every 2 years during the biennial congress. This award was made at the congress in Kansas City in 2008.The next will be at the Maastricht meeting in  May 2010.

Eligibility

Requirements for nomination

• A nominee must have received his or her first professional post graduate degree within the previous 10 years at the time the award is made.
• A nominee must have made a significant contribution to the field of lipids and fatty acids. The nominee should be the first author of patents or high-impact scientific journal publications in the area of lipids and fatty acids.

Failure to receive an award in one year shall not bar a nominee from consideration for an award in a subsequent year, so long as they continue to meet the required rules of eligibility. Rather, nominators of high quality nominees shall be encouraged to update and resubmit their nominating documents for subsequent awards.

  Nomination 

Following a biennial congress, and no later than January 1st of the year preceding that in which an award is to be made at the next congress, the Secretary/Treasurer of ISSFAL shall issue a call for nominations. The call for nomination shall be published on the ISSFAL website and in the ISSFAL Newsletter and shall include: the announcement of the name of the award, the rules of eligibility, and the deadline date for receipt of nominations. For the first time, this announcement will be made as soon as the proposed Rules and Regulations for the ISSFAL Early Career Award are approved by the Board of Directors of ISSFAL.

Each member of the Society, except members of the Award Selection Committee, can nominate one candidate for each award period.

The nominator will submit 1) a primary letter of nomination, 2) two supporting letters of nomination from different people, 3) a resume which includes date when the nominee’s highest degree was obtained, a summary of the nominee’s research and its significance, list of all publications, degrees held (with names of the Institutes granting the degrees and dates of the degrees) and professional positions held.

Letters of nomination and supporting documents shall be submitted to the Secretary/Treasurer of ISSFAL for receipt by mail by April 1 of the year preceding the year the award will be given. The Secretary/ Treasurer shall forward a copy of all properly prepared nominations and supporting documents as well as a copy of the rules for the award to the members of the Award Selection Committee by  April 30th of the year preceding the awarding meeting. 

Award Selection Committee

  The ISSFAL board will appoint the members of the Award Selection Committee (n=5) at the biennial board meetings. 

Procedure

  The members of the Award Selection Committee will verify whether the nominated candidates fulfill the eligibility criteria

• If so, they will rank the candidates according to what they consider to be the relative merit of the candidates (lowest number is best), taking into account the significance of the research, whether it is focused or not and how closely it is related to lipids and fatty acids. The chairman of the selection committee will average the scores. The winner will be the person with the lowest average. When two or more candidates obtain the same score, the winner will be the person with the lowest average when the highest and lowest marks are omitted (and so on if necessary). If there is no candidate who fulfills the criteria, the prize will not be awarded.
• The chairperson of the Award Selection Committee will notify the Secretary/Treasurer of the Society whether there is an award winner and if so give him/her the name of the winner and turn over the nominations, seconding letters and other related documents for safe-guarding. A written confirmation of the winners name and details shall be sent by the Awards Committee Chair to the Secretary/Treasurer of the Society.

Announcements

  The winner and his or her nominator will be notified by the President of the Society. The President of the Society will secure acceptance from the awardee and determine whether he/she can meet the other requirements for receiving the award.

• The award winner will be announced in the ISSFAL Newsletter and on the ISSFAL website.

· The nominator of the top two unselected nominees is to be advised by the Chairperson of the Award Selection Committee that his/her candidate was not selected, but that he/she could be reconsidered in future years (provided eligibility remains), and that the nominator and the nomination seconders should be given the opportunity to up-date the file.