The PAGES Early-Career Award

The next deadline for ECA applications is 30 September 2024. 

PAGES launched an Early-Career Award (ECA) in 2021 for excellence in collaborative scholarship, including research, communication, outreach, leadership, networking, community service, and international collaboration. PAGES firmly advocates a more integrated view on research assessment (DORA). 

PAGES facilitates activities that address past changes in the Earth system in a quantitative and process-oriented way in order to improve predictions of future climate and ecosystems, and inform strategies for sustainability. PAGES pursues broad objectives and goals that cannot be reached by a single research team but require the integration of a wider international science community.

The PAGES ECA honors people in the early stages of their career for their engagement both within and beyond the scientific community, for example through (though not limited to) involvement in science coordination, outreach, networking, leadership activities, development of international collaborations and for excellence in research in support of PAGES' goals.

The Award will be publicly presented by PAGES at the next Open Science Meeting (OSM). Awardees will receive a certificate, invitation to present at the OSM, and conference grant* to attend the OSM (max. 2000 USD).

> View past and present ECA recipients

Eligibility criteria

Any person is eligible to receive one PAGES ECA in their lifetime. Candidates must be PhD students, or postdocs (within 5 years of completing their PhD) at the time of application. Applicants that exceed the 5 years threshold are accepted if they can justify career breaks (such as parental leave**, partial employment, military service, or health-related absences). Members of the PAGES Scientific Steering Committee (SSC) are ineligible for consideration, nor may they provide any of the required documents for nominees (see below).

The next deadline to submit nominations will be communicated as soon as this information is available. 

Procedure and requirements for nomination

Nominations for the Award must be emailed to show mail address no later than the deadline, using the subject title “PAGES Early-Career Award nomination”.

The nomination package (three pages total; emailed as one pdf document) should include: 

• A nomination letter by a peer (self-nominations are not accepted), not exceeding one A4 page, providing a brief history of the nominee’s professional achievements and service to the (paleo-)community, explaining why the nominee deserves the PAGES ECA, and the name and contact details of two referees who could be contacted to provide supporting letters. 
• The nominee’s CV and output, not to exceed two A4 pages, providing:
  * career stage, PhD award date and number of subsequent months in full-time scientific employment if relevant;
  * highlights of the applicant’s scientific work, international collaboration, community service within and outside the scientific community, outreach, and leadershipin PAGES-relevant research activities;
  * brief statement of research opportunities and performance (See for example DORA).

Nomination packages that do not meet the above criteria will not be considered.

PAGES ECA Committee 

The Award Committee comprises the PAGES Co-chairs, the PAGES Executive Director and the PAGES Early-Career Network (ECN) representative in the Scientific Steering Committee (SSC). The Committee recommends the awardee to the SSC for final approval. The Award is announced as soon as the decision is made. 

* Conference grant includes the overall travel, accommodation and registration cost
** Up to one year of parental leave may be added per child, where appropriate