ICA Excellence Award 2024
The Association for European Life Science Universities (ICA) wishes to recognize individuals who have achieved excellence in furthering the values and mission of ICA. Founded in 1988 as the Interfaculty Committee Agraria, where the acronym ICA comes from, ICA today covers a network of more than 50 life science universities from European countries (European Higher Education Area, EHEA). The life science universities focus on the circular bioeconomy (agriculture, forestry, food value chain & biobased economy), the sustainable use of natural resources, climate change, biodiversity, the protection of the environment, and on rural development.
General Selection Criteria and Award Categories
Based on the ICA Vision, Mission, and Essentials (see https://www.ica-europe.info/about-ica/our-strategy ), the award will be bestowed on those who have demonstrated excellence by:
- Providing thought leadership, inspiration, and by contributing new knowledge through research and/or innovation for the European and global sustainable circular bioeconomy and society, and/or;
- Enhancing education in the specific areas relevant to ICA and more generally in the areas of the bioeconomy and society, and/or;
- Developing cooperation through contributing to platforms, joint learning, outreach and networking, and/or sharing experiences and understanding among European colleagues, which has improved research, education or innovation and/or;
- Achieving impact and relevance with specific reference to the ICA values and mission.
Calls for nominations for ICA Excellence Awards in the following three categories:
- ICA Excellence Award – Lifetime Achievements
- ICA Excellence Award – Early-Stage Academic
- ICA Excellence Award – ICA Networking
Description of categories
- ICA Excellence Award – Lifetime Achievements
This award is for an active academic who has demonstrated impactful lifetime achievements with specific reference to the ICA values and mission and full-fill the General Selection Criteria mentioned above. 2
- ICA Excellence Award – Early-Stage Academic
This award is for a scientist in his/her doctoral or post-doctoral stage up to 10 years after obtaining a PhD degree. The candidate should demonstrate a high current and potential impact in research, education, innovation, and/or dissemination, and fulfils the General Selection Criteria mentioned above.
- ICA Excellence Award – ICA Networking
This award is for an individual who is an active academic/non-academic individual who demonstrates strong skills and high impact on ICA’s networking activities in relevance with specific reference to the ICA values and mission and full-fill the General Selection Criteria mentioned above.
Eligibility
Each Nominee (the proposed Candidate) must be a member of a European Life Science University or a Life Science faculty of a comprehensive university – which is an ICA member or is eligible to apply for ICA membership according to the Bologna convention.
Nominees will show outstanding achievement in one or more of the four excellence criteria above. It is acknowledged that candidates for each of the three awards will have different levels of achievement within and between categories.
Nominees, if successful, must be available to receive the award in person at ICA’s annual forum (October 2024) and may be asked to give a short presentation. The expenses for attending will be paid by ICA.
All members of the academic community in ICA universities, irrespective of their gender, sexual orientation, beliefs, or any other potentially discriminatory characteristic, are eligible to be nominated for the Award. We strongly encourage nominations from underrepresented groups.
Nature of the Award
The award will consist of a trophy and an ICA Certificate of Excellence.
Application and nomination Procedure
Individuals (Nominators) are invited to nominate others (Nominees, proposed Candidates) for the ICA Excellence Award to the ICA-Award-2024-selection panel. The panel will keep all nominations strictly confidential, and the identity of the nominators and the nominees will be kept in strict confidence. Once the decision by the Selection Panel and ICA Board has been made, the Award winner(s) will be asked to confirm their acceptance of the award. All nominations and documents must be in the English language. 3
Nominations must include the following:
- A completed Nomination Form;
- A letter from the Nominator (Nomination letter), not exceeding two pages in length, summarizing why they have proposed the candidate for the ICA Award and including in particular the impact or relevance of their achievements (see demonstrated excellence);
- Two support letters from members of a European Life Science University or faculty whose staff are eligible to be nominated for the ICA awards and are from different countries;
- The CV of the Nominee (candidate).
Submit nomination using the Nomination Form below to the ICA secretariat by e-mail to Dr Rasa Pakeltienė (rasa.pakeltiene@vdu.lt).
Selection Procedure and Criteria
Nominations will be scored by the Selection Panel against the criteria outlined above as evidenced in the nomination documents submitted by the nominators.
The ICA Board appoints the Selection Panel comprising 4 members:
- ICA Vice President – Chair
- ICA Board member
- Chair of an ICA Standing Committee
- ICA President’s representative
Selection Panel members cannot actively participate in nominating or supporting nominees to the Award. The names of the members of the Selection Panel will not be made public, except for the Chair, and the Selection Panel members will sign a confidentiality agreement. Selection will be done in each award category according to the selection criteria that have equal importance. The Selection Panel members’ scores will be kept confidential to the ICA Board. The Selection Panel will report to the ICA Board and recommend one Nominee in each category for the ICA Excellence Award. The ICA Board will make a final decision in the selection of the Award recipient(s). The Selection Panel has the right to recommend not issuing any Award in a given call and in a given Category if the nominations do not meet a sufficiently high standard to an Award. Likewise, the ICA Board has the right to not issue one or more of the awards if it judges that the nominations recommended by the Selection Panel do not meet the standards. All decisions of the ICA Board will be final and not open to appeal. 4
- Timeline for the ICA Excellence Award
- 22 January 2024 – Call for nominations open
- 22 April 2024 – Nomination deadline
- May 2024 – Selection Panel makes a recommendation to ICA Board
- May 2024– ICA Board selects ICA Excellence Award recipient(s)
- October 2024 – Awards are presented at the ICA General Assembly.