The ESAI Early Career Researcher Award celebrates an outstanding conference paper and presentation by an early career researcher presented at the annual ESAI Conference. The ESAI has established this award to celebrate the excellent work which is contributed to the academic field by early career researchers.
The ESAI welcomes contributions for this award from all Early Career Researchers (ECRs) who have submitted a paper to the ESAI Conference 2024.
A presentation certificate will be awarded, and the output will feature in social media channels for the ESAI. The winner of the Award may be invited by the editor of Irish Educational Studies to submit the paper for consideration for publication in the journal.
Applicant
An early career researcher is defined as:
- someone who is studying for an advanced degree (Masters or PhD) or who has obtained a PhD within the past five years*. Or
- someone who is a practising educator with emerging research or policy contributions.
- Eligible persons may apply for the Award themselves, or may be nominated by another person (e.g. a colleague or supervisor or referee) with the applicant’s consent.
(*consideration will be given to those applicants who are outside of this period of time, should they have extenuating circumstances).
Criteria
To be eligible for consideration for the award, applicants must meet all the following criteria:
- be a member of ESAI
- be the main contributing author
- have an abstract accepted for presentation at the conference through the abstract submission process via email to conference@esai.ie. Please clearly mark email subject as ECR award application
- submit a first-authored conference paper (6000-8000 words) for review by the conference Awards Panel by 15th March 2024
- be able to participate and present the paper at the conference
- The paper must not be submitted for publication or previously presented in another forum.
Assessment Criteria
This ECR award honours outstanding emerging scholarship. Applications will be judged on the basis of the following criteria:
- Originality
- Significance and /or scholarly relevance to educational studies and debates
- Conceptual, theoretical and/or methodological contribution
- Coherent and persuasive argument
- Methodical organisation and clarity of written expression
- Effective positioning within the current literature
Selection process
Applications will be assessed by the Awards Panel which is convened each year by the ESAI conference committee. The decision of the awards panel is final. The panel will not be in a position to provide individual feedback on submissions.
