NZMS Early Career Research Award

This award was instituted in 2006 to foster mathematical research in New Zealand and to recognise excellent research carried out by early-career New Zealand mathematicians. Candidates will be judged on their best three published research outputs and a brief CV. Research outputs could include publications in books, journals, other peer-reviewed venues, or other types of high quality mathematical research.

Eligibility. Candidates may contact the NZMS President Prof David Bryant in confidence for clarification of how the following eligibility criteria apply to their particular circumstances.

• Candidates should be within ten years of confirmation of PhD.

• Candidates must have been residing in NZ during two of the previous three years. In the case where a candidate has been prevented from entering New Zealand by COVID restrictions the candidate will be treated as if they entered New Zealand at the time their job/course of study commenced.

• Candidates must be current members of the NZMS.

• No person can receive the award more than once.

• An appropriate adjustment to eligibility conditions can be made to take into account career breaks or periods of reduced workload.

Nominations and applications should include the following:

• name and affiliation of candidate;

• statement of general area of research;

• a brief CV which illustrates the nominee's standing in the community, including: any distinctions awarded, list of any graduate students supervised, list of any grants received (including names of co-investigators), full list of publications (including names of coauthors);

• if the candidate chooses a short (no more than half page) statement detailing the effect of COVID related disruption on their research output;

• if appropriate, a justification for an adjustment of time since confirmation of PhD;

• an electronic copy (pdf) of each of their three best papers (the papers must be published or in press);

• a clear statement of the mathematical contribution of the candidate in cases of joint authorship;

• a citation, of maximum 40 words, summarising the mathematical research underlying the application (it is recommended that self-applicants approach a colleague to write this citation);

• names of two persons willing to act as referees, though the judging panel may approach referees other than those nominated. Referees should be carefully chosen; in particular, they should not have a conflict of interest and they should be able to give scientific insight into the work to be assessed. It may be easier to avoid a conflict of interest by choosing international referees.

Unsuccessful applicants from 2021 who are still eligible in 2022 will be invited to update their application so that it can be reconsidered in 2022.

Nominations should be sent by email to the NZMS President by 31 August. Submissions should state clearly that they are for the NZMS Early Career Award. Applicants may nominate themselves.

A judging panel will be appointed by the NZMS President, and makes recommendations to the President for the Award. No person shall receive the Award more than once. The Award consists of a certificate including an appropriate citation of the awardee's work, and will be announced and presented at the New Zealand Mathematics Colloquium Dinner in December.

COVID

NZMS recognises that the effects of COVID lockdowns and other disruptions on research capacity have been unequally distributed. To ameliorate this, the prize committee determining our research awards will take unequal opportunity loss due to COVID disruption into account. To facilitate this consideration candidates are invited to submit a half page description of the effect that COVID related disruption has had on their research output. Submitting this description is voluntary and, as with all other application materials, the information revealed is protected by our privacy policy.

Policy relating to COVID will be updated as appropriate at the beginning of each calendar year.

Conflict of Interest

(Note: these have been adapted from rules used by the Royal Society for managing conflict of interest with Marsden Panel members.)

An assessor, referee, committee member or convenor has a potential conflict of interest if:

• they are a supervisor, partner, spouse or a family member of any applicant(s)

• they work in the same team or department of any applicant(s)

• they have co-authored publications with the applicant(s) in the past five years

• they have a low level of comfort assessing the application due to their relationship with the applicant(s)

An assessor with a potential conflict of interest will not be asked to evaluate the application.

If a committee member has a potential conflict of interest, they must discuss the conflict with the convenor. The convenor will decide whether or not the committee member can continue with their role.

If the convenor has a potential conflict of interest, they must discuss the conflict with the NZMS president. The president will decide whether the duties of convening be passed to another member. Disputes regarding conflict of interest will be resolved by the convenor and, if necessary, the NZMS president.

Privacy Act

All applications and reference letters are to be treated as confidential. They are to be accessed only by the members of the prize committee or accreditation committee and, where necessary, the NZMS president.

The NZMS president and convenor of the committee may keep a secure copy of all applications and reference letters for a maximum of one year following the conclusion of the assessment process. This is solely for the purpose of

• Resolving any disputes

• Allowing applicants to reapply with the same reference letters.

Note that invitations to assessors and referees must make it clear that letters will be retained for these purposes.

All other committee or panel members must delete all application files and reference letters immediately following the conclusion of the assessment process.

Recipients of the NZMS Early Career Research Award