10th Call for the 2022 European Young Researchers’ Award (EYRA) [Closed]

The European Young Researchers’ Award (EYRA), granted by EuroScience since 2010, aims to inspire early-stage researchers in all research areas to incorporate a European dimension and perspective into their research. Two awards are granted every two years to: a) a PhD candidate and b) a postdoctoral fellow.

The prize-giving ceremony for the two awards is held at the biennual EuroScience flagship event, EuroScience Open Forum (ESOF). The Award consists of a certificate, waiving the participation fee to ESOF, a grant to cover travel and accommodation for the stay in the ESOF city and one year free EuroScience membership.

The 2022 EuroScience Open Forum is scheduled be held as a hybrid event in July 2022 in Leiden, The Netherlands, and in several regional hubs across Europe (final dates will be announced).

Eligibility Criteria

The 2022 call was open to early career researchers, who fulfilled the following criteria: 

• For the PhD Candidate award: Applicants should have enrolled for a PhD degree at the time of the application deadline or should have successfully defended their thesis after January 1st, 2021. 
• For the Postdoctoral fellow award: Applicants should have successfully defended their thesis after January 1^st, 2016 and should have enrolled in a postdoctoral programme at the time of the application deadline. 
• Candidates had to be affiliated with a European country (cf. Council of Europe’s membership rules) 
• European and Non- European nationals were eligible to apply. 

Evaluation Criteria

All applications have been evaluated by a Scientific International Committee based on the following criteria: 

1. Quality of the research: The evaluation will be based on widely accepted academic criteria, such as: publications in peer-reviewed journals, other publications, references, prizes, grants, patents. 

2. European dimension: The research must have a clear European dimension. It could entail a collaborative project counting with the contribution of several European countries or it could encompass a research project based in one European country with a research topic of European added value. 

3. Project engagement: The candidate’s contribution to research groups or projects, e.g. inspiration to others, further development of a project, leadership experience. 

4. Outreach: Involvement in dissemination activities for a general audience, e.g. public talks at a local or national level, media appearance, teaching outside academia, research-based social engagement. 

Application procedure and documentation

The deadline for the 2022 call for both awards was Friday September 17, 2021 at 12:00pm CEST.

All applications had to be submitted online via the ESCMPlatform  https://escmp.euroscience.org/login 

• The application form was to be filled in English. 
• The cover page form was to be downloaded, completed and included in the online application. 
• Self-nomination was accepted. 

Required Supporting Documents: (to be uploaded under supporting documents) 

• A Research Outline describing the research and its European dimension (max 800 words). 
• A Curriculum Vitae including statement of prizes/awards already received (max 800 words). 
• A list of publications or other relevant material to support the candidacy.  
• Two reference letters which were to be sent directly to the EuroScience Office. It was recommended that the references came from individuals well qualified in the field. At least one of the references was to be from a person who has not taken part in or is associated with the research itself. 

Applicants who did not have an account were requested to create one on the EuroScience Conference and Membership Platform (ESCMP). Once registered, they were asked to click on “Apply for an Award” and to follow the application procedure. The field “Motivation Letter” could be ignored (write N/A). It was replaced by the Research Outline document, to be uploaded under “Supporting Documents”. 

All applications had to fulfil the eligibility criteria and respect the application procedure to be considered for evaluation. 

For further information please contact the EuroScience office. 

The winners’ names will be published on the EuroScience’s website. 

EuroScience is a non-profit independent grassroots association of European researchers (in all areas of knowledge) and those interested in science, whether in the public sector, universities, research institutes or the business sector. From its inception in 1997, EuroScience has been active in shaping policies for science, technology and innovation (STI), from the discussions leading to the European Charter and Code for Researchers, to establishing the ERC, or the shaping of Horizon 2020 and its budget in the EU Financial Framework 2014-2020. EuroScience also plays a key role in promoting the dialogue between Science and Society, notably through the EuroScience Open Forum (ESOF) meetings which has been organized since 2004, and its web magazine EuroScientist.