Organization of the "Dream Chemistry Award" Contest (the "Contest") in 2024 complies with the guidelines stated in these Contest Terms and Conditions.
The aim of the Contest is to award a prize to a young scientist (the "Candidate") for the idea of a scientific project (the "Project") in the field of chemistry or a chemistry-related interdisciplinary project, based on a scientific problem that the scientist dreams to solve. The prize is not intended to be used for the Project implementation.
The Contest is organized by the Institute of Physical Chemistry PAS (IChF), Warsaw, Kasprzaka 44/52, Poland (the "Organizer"). The Organizer shall announce the date it starts accepting contest entries, as well as the results of the Contest by publishing information on the Contest website.
The Contest is held under the auspices of an Honorary Committee appointed by the Organizer. The list of Committee members will be announced on the Contest website.
IChF will appoint a Scientific Committee for evaluation of contest entries. The members of the Scientific Committee shall be experts in the field of chemistry and related disciplines, and shall come from the academic community. The Scientific Committee shall be composed of not less than 10 members. The Committee’s composition shall be announced on the Contest website.
Eligible Candidates for the Contest may be citizens of any country who must fulfill the following criteria:
The Candidates are nominated by members of the academic community (the "Nominators").
The Nominators are respected experts in their fields. They must hold at least a Ph.D. degree and have minimum of ten years’ experience since publishing their first scientific paper.
The Contest will be announced in March 2024.
Any Contest entry of the Candidate must be preceded by a nomination of the Candidate by a Nominator submitted electronically via the Contest website by June 30, 2024. The nomination must contain the Candidate’s first name and last name, e-mail address, current affiliation, basic information about the Candidate and their research interests as well as a brief statement why the Candidate should be considered for DCA. The Organizer of the Contest will notify the eligible Candidate about their nomination by e-mail.
Each Contest entry ("Application") must contain following documents:
All Applications will be submitted electronically via the Contest website latest by August 31, 2024.
Both the Project and the Candidate’s CV will be evaluated. Evaluation of the Projects and ranking of the Candidates by the Scientific Committee will be completed by October 1, 2024.
Five top Candidates from the ranking list become the Finalists of the Contest (the „Finalists”). The List of Finalists will be announced on the Contest website without delay.
Each Finalist of the Contest will be invited to present their Project in a 25-minute presentation in front of the Scientific Committee. The presentations will include 5-minute popularizing introduction about the candidate’s project meant for general audience and 20 minutes will be dedicated to explain their dream project thoroughly. Each presentation will be followed by a 10 minutes discussion, where back-up slides may be used. Presentations of the Finalists will be held at IChF in Warsaw on December 2, 2024.
The Scientific Committee will select the Contest Winner (the „Winner”). The decision of the Scientific Committee will be final and incontestable.
The Winner will deliver a 45-minute talk on the results of their current research on December 3, 2024. The name of the Winner of the Contest will be announced on the Contest website.
The Winner of the contest wins the “Dream Chemistry Award” (the „Prize”), which comprise of a statuette, a certificate and a financial prize of €10,000.
Other Finalists selected by the Scientific Committee will receive “Dream Chemistry Top 5” prize consisting of a certificate and a financial prize of €1,000 each.
