The ARCUS Award for Arctic Research Excellence is a student paper competition judged in four broad categories: Social Sciences, Physical Sciences, Life Sciences, and Interdisciplinary Research, with up to four awards given each year. The competition, sponsored and operated by ARCUS on behalf of the member institutions, began in 1996, with the first winners recognized at the 1997 Arctic Forum and ARCUS annual meeting.
In recent years the submissions to the competition have increased dramatically and the program has outgrown ARCUS' ability to operate it solely with ARCUS member dues. The ARCUS Board of Directors made a decision to have a hiatus for the 2004-2005 competition to take time to develop the program and to seek additional grant funding or sponsorship to sustain the ARCUS Award for Arctic Research Excellence on a long term basis.
The ARCUS Award for Arctic Research Excellence competition is open to any registered undergraduate or graduate student, in any discipline interested in this opportunity to gain national recognition for their research. Winning students receive a $500 cash award and present their research at the annual ARCUS-sponsored Arctic Forum, an interdisciplinary conference on significant arctic research.
In an effort to continue to support and highlight the work of young arctic researchers during this hiatus, ARCUS partnered this year with the SEARCH Open Science Meeting (OSM) sponsoring agencies and the meeting organizers to sponsor a student poster competition at the 27-30 October 2003 meeting in Seattle, Washington. Click here for more information about student scholar participation in the SEARCH OSM and to review the posters submitted to the competition.
ARCUS partnered with the Arctic Institute of North America (AINA) to offer awards to the the competition winners. The winners will receive support to attend a relevant conference on the Arctic and their work will be highlighted at the 2004 Arctic Forum in Washington DC. They also will receive a two-year Arctic Institute of North America membership, which includes a subscription to the interdisciplinary journal ARCTIC.
For more information about the hiatus and how we plan on highlighting the work of students, please read the Dear Colleague Letter.