Awards Competition Research Articles

Do grant proposal texts matter for funding decisions? A field experiment

Scientists and funding agencies invest considerable resources in writing and evaluating grant proposals. But do grant proposal texts noticeably change panel decisions in single blind review? We report on a field experiment conducted by The Dutch Research Council (NWO) in collaboration with the authors in an early-career competition for awards of 800,000 euros of research funding. A random half of panelists were shown a CV and only a one-paragraph summary of the proposed research, while the other half were shown a CV and a full proposal. We find that withholding proposal texts from panelists did not detectibly impact their proposal rankings. This result suggests that the resources devoted to writing and evaluating grant proposals may not have their intended effect of facilitating the selection of the most promising science.

Fighting COVID-19 with data: An analysis of data journalism projects submitted to Sigma Awards 2021

Abstract: The COVID-19 health crisis has been heavily reported on an international scale for several years. This has pushed news journalism in a datafied direction: reporters have learnt how to analyse and visualise the statistical effects of COVID-19 on various sectors of society. As a result, in 2021, the international Sigma Awards competition for data journalism highlighted coverage of the pandemic. Using content analysis with qualitative elements, this paper analyses the shortlisted works covering COVID-19 from the competition (n=73). It focuses on the data references made by the teams – sources, type of both reference and data used – showing statistics from official institutions to be the most used type of data. It also lists the main problems journalists had to face while working on their projects. Most often these problems fell into two categories: specific characteristics of the project, mostly ‘time consuming’, and issues with data.

Editorial: The 2021 Arthur R. Frechette Awards Competition of the IADR Prosthodontics Group

Irena Sailer, Editor-in-Chief/Stephen F. Rosenstiel, Frechette Award Chair, IADR Prosthodontics Group: Each year, the Arthur R. Frechette Research Awards competition, sponsored by the International Association for Dental Research (IADR) Prosthodontics Group, is executed during the IADR annual meeting. The Frechette research competition honors the memory of Arthur R. Frechette, who served as Secretary-Treasurer of the IADR from 1968 to 1977. This year, the 99th IADR Annual Meeting took place virtually from July 21–24, 2021, analogous to 2020. The judges of this year’s competition were officers and past-presidents of the IADR Prosthodontics group. The winners of this competition were Dr Mostafa Alhamad, University of Illinois at Chicago College of Dentistry, Chicago, Illinois, USA, for his project “Ti-ions and/or particles in saliva potentially aggravate dental implant corrosion,” and Dr Xinchao Miao, Tohoku University, Sendai, Japan, for the scientific work “Stepwise ameloblast induction from induced pluripotent stem cells.” The two awardees received award plaques and a check for $1,000 USD thanks to the generous support of the Whip Mix Corporation. We sincerely congratulate the two 2021 Frechette Award winners for their accomplishments! Presently, new investigators in prosthodontics are encouraged to apply for one of two 2022 Arthur R. Frechette Research Awards in Prosthodontics. Each award recognizes original research by new investigators and is sponsored by the Prosthodontics Group of the IADR, supported by the Whip Mix Corporation. One award is for prosthodontics research undertaken with a materials science– or bioengineering-oriented protocol, and the other is for prosthodontic research undertaken with a biologic sciences and tissue engineering–oriented protocol. Researchers carrying out original research are eligible for the Frechette Award if they have been the primary author of no more than three articles published in refereed dental journals. Each award carries a cash prize of $1,000 USD. Research submitted for the IADR meeting in Chengdu, China is eligible for consideration for the Frechette Award, provided it has not been published elsewhere or will not be under consideration for another award. Abstracts must be submitted to the Prosthodontics Group of the IADR by the deadline (January 17, 2022), with the appropriate boxes on the online submission checked. The abstracts will be judged for (1) originality and scientific design of the investigation; (2) suitability of the methods of analysis; and (3) scientific value of the work. Selected finalists will be judged at the 2022 IADR meeting in Chengdu (March 18–21, 2022), and the winner will be announced at the Prosthodontics Group Business meeting. We hereby encourage all researchers to consider this highly recognized award, and we wish all participating investigators good luck with their submissions. We look forward to publishing the winners again next year in the IJP! Sincerely yours, Irena Sailer, Editor-in-Chief Stephen F. Rosenstiel, Frechette Award Chair, IADR Prosthodontics Group

Screeners needed for journalism awards

Scientists from the United States and abroad are needed to review the scientific accuracy of entries in the prestigious AAAS Kavli Science Journalism Awards competition. The screening sessions in late August and September will be online this year, opening them to participation by scientists beyond the Washington, DC, area. We need additional screeners with expertise in virology, epidemiology, and public health. If you can volunteer, please contact Emily Hughes at ehughes@aaas.org.

Screeners needed for journalism awards

Scientists from the United States and abroad are needed to review the scientific accuracy of entries in the prestigious AAAS Kavli Science Journalism Awards competition. The screening sessions in late August and September will be online this year, opening them to participation by scientists beyond the Washington, D.C., area. We need additional screeners with expertise in virology, epidemiology, and public health. If you can volunteer, please contact Emily Hughes at ehughes@aaas.org.

Correction notice

The Society for American City and Regional Planning History (SACRPH) 2011 Biennial Awards Competition. Published in Journal of Planning History, volume 18, issue 2 (May), pp. 159-162 by Sage Publications in 2019. An announcement piece titled “The Society for American City and Regional Planning History (SACRPH) 2011 Biennial Awards Competition” (pp. 159-162) was inadvertently included in the above mentioned issue. It is outdated and should not be considered a part of the issue.

The Society for American City and Regional Planning History (SACRPH) 2011 Biennial Awards Competition

The Society for American City and Regional Planning History (SACRPH) 2011 Biennial Awards Competition

SPE's 48th Automotive Innovation Awards Celebrates Achievements in Auto Plastics

At the 48th annual Automotive Innovation Awards Gala on Nov. 7, SPE's Automotive Division of Troy, Mich. honored 11 category winners, one of which also won the Grand Award as the Year's Most Innovative use of Plastics among 70 or so nominations in the 2018 SPE Automotive Innovation Awards Competition. They also presented a Lifetime Achievement Award to Dr. Rose Ryntz, vice president of global advanced development and material engineering at International Automotive Components Group (IAC) of Southfield, Mich. Formal prizes were awarded in the categories of additive manufacturing, body exterior, body interior, chassis/hardware, environmental, hall of fame, materials, powertrain, process/assembly/enabling technologies, and safety (see sidebar). The nominations this reporter and judge felt were most innovative follow.

Call for Papers & design awards competition

Call for Papers & design awards competition

Enlightening Possibilities: Plastics Expand Role in Vehicle Lighting Applications

Automotive lighting is something that few people spend much time thinking about—that is until something stops working or someone's eyes are blasted by another car's high beams at night. While lighting is rarely the reason people buy cars, it plays an important safety role in all personal and commercial vehicles—both in terms of making a vehicle more visible to humans and animals as well as improving a driver's ability to see potential problems in the vehicle's path. Not surprisingly, plastics play an important role in these applications and, in fact, are being used for visual branding on many passenger vehicles. Nominations for the SPE Automotive Innovation Awards Competition—organized by the SPE Automotive Division—show just how innovative lighting has become for increasing occupant comfort and safety, adding functionality, and making vehicles memorable to consumers

Screeners needed for journalism awards

Scientists from the United States and abroad who will be in the Washington, D.C., area between late August and late September are needed to review the scientific accuracy of entries in the prestigious AAAS Kavli Science Journalism Awards competition. If you can volunteer, please contact Nkongho

What does consolidation mean for performance? Concentration, competition, and defense contracting outcomes

How does industrial concentration influence performance outcomes in government contracting? This paper hypothesizes that concentration influences contract performance directly, as well as indirectly through reducing competition for contract awards. Tests of these hypotheses on a large dataset of US defense contracts reveal nuanced results. Increasing concentration is directly associated with a higher likelihood of contract terminations, and remains the same even after accounting for levels of competition (suggesting competition does not mediate the influence of concentration on this performance indicator). Contrary to expectations, higher competition is associated with a higher rather than a lower likelihood of terminations. Concentration is not associated with the incidence of cost ceiling breaches, and competition resulting in single (rather than multiple) offers is associated with a lower likelihood of a breach. When a breach has occurred, however, higher concentration is associated with larger breaches sizes, and higher competition with smaller breach sizes. Combined, these results partially support concerns about a connection between concentration, market power, and diminished performance incentives but suggest that the nature of these relationships depends upon the indicator of contract performance being considered.

Innovations in Marketing Analytics

Every year, the Association of National Advertisers (ANA) and marketing-analytics provider Neustar reward marketers for analytics work that demonstrates a powerful connection between marketing and actual business results.[1][1] The annual Genius Awards competition has become a window into the fast-

Recipients of the 2017 Early Career Investigator Awards.

This is the 12th year of competition for ATVB Early Career Investigator Awards. The Awards recognize articles published in ATVB in 2016 that were submitted by new investigators and judged to be the most outstanding in the Atherosclerosis/Lipoprotein, Thrombosis, and Vascular Biology sections of the journal. The 3 awards are named for Dr Daniel Steinberg, who devised a method to determine the site of degradation of the proteins and lipids of …

2016 Microscopy Today Innovation Awards

Congratulations to the winners of the seventh annual Microscopy Today Innovation Awards competition. These awards honor innovative microscopy–related products and methods that appeared in the previous year. Our team of judges, led by Tom Kelly, looked for innovations that will make new scientific investigations possible. The ten winning innovations were selected on the basis of their importance and usefulness to the microscopy community. The entries most likely to win are those that provide better, faster, or entirely new methods of analysis using some type of microscope or microanalytical instrument. The 2016 Microscopy Today Innovation Award winners are: Brookhaven and Argonne National Laboratories for a new hard x-ray scanning microscope Excelitas Technologies for the X-Cite® TURBO with LaserLED Hybrid Drive™ illuminator Leica Microsystems for the TCS SP8 DLS Confocal Microscope with light sheet illumination Nanojehm, Inc. for the SEM Aura Work Station with image sharpening software Oak Ridge National Laboratory for G-mode microscopy and spectroscopy in SPM systems

US manufacturers in forefront at 2016 PM Design Competition

Reversing a recent trend, US fabricators of PM and MIM parts made an impressive showing at this year's MPIF Design Excellence Awards Competition.

Recipients of the 2016 Early Career Investigator Awards

This is the 11th year of competition for ATVB Early Career Investigator Awards. The Awards recognize papers published in ATVB in 2015 that were submitted by new investigators and judged to be the most outstanding in the Atherosclerosis/Lipoprotein, Thrombosis, and Vascular Biology sections of the journal. The 3 awards are named for Dr Daniel Steinberg, who devised a method to determine the site of degradation of the proteins and lipids …

Capacity and Equity: Federal Funding Competition between and Within Metropolitan Regions

ABSTRACT:Major federal grant programs in areas such as transportation, neighborhood development, and education increasingly rely on competition to award funds. Yet the capacity to develop a competitive application for funds can vary widely, with some places lacking civic resources that contribute to successful grant applications. Moreover, not all civic actors and priorities have similar levels of involvement in grant seeking; in particular, low-income communities may be left out of the process. Our research examines how two forms of capacity—civic and equity advocacy—affect the distribution of federal transportation grants between and within metropolitan regions. We use multiple methods of analysis, including comparative case studies of transportation projects in Miami and Orlando, as well as a cross-sectional quantitative analysis of competitive transportation grants. First, we assess how civic capacity affects whether a region secured federal transportation funding and find that civic capacity is positively associated with receiving competitive transportation grants in both the case studies and quantitative analysis. Second, we examine whether equity advocacy capacity within a region is associated with grant project benefits for low-income communities. Based on the case studies, we find that equity advocacy capacity may be a key condition in order for grants to benefit low-income communities, and our exploratory quantitative analysis further supports for this finding. Overall our findings substantiate concerns that competition for federal awards could exacerbate disparities between and within regions.

The opportunities and challenges of Maori agribusiness in hill farming

Introduction This paper is a personal view of the opportunities and challenges that face Māori hill country farms over the next 20 years. This view is based on my observations and experiences working in the Māori agribusiness sector over the last 35 years. Māori agribusiness has come a long way in the last 50 years. The term "sleeping giant" is still relevant today. The last 30 years have seen the major land developments of the 1980s and 1990s consolidate, and many Māori land blocks came back under full Māori control. In the last 15 years there have been some major success stories across the Māori farming sector, highlighted by the revitalisation of the Ahuwhenua Awards competition in 2003.

Asian manufacturers win big at POWDERMET2015 design competition

The annual PM Design Excellence Awards Competition sponsored by MPIF can be counted on to provide some interesting results if not surprises. This year's competition was no exception.