The Vincent Weir Scientific Award aims to reward and encourage research on the conservation biology of bats by new researchers, and to recognise the late Hon. Vincent Weir’s major contributions to bat conservation over many years. The prize was first presented at the National Bat Conference in 2010 and has been awarded in each year since.

Conditions:

  • The Vincent Weir Scientific Award is awarded annually to a PhD or MSc student at a UK-based institution who has made a significant contribution to research on the conservation biology of bats.
  • The award is for students producing a published paper or papers from their thesis either before the thesis is submitted, or within two years of thesis submission.
  • Any person can only win the award once, and the award may not be given in a given year if none of the submissions is deemed as making a sufficiently significant contribution to the conservation biology of bats.
  • The assessment panel will usually include BCT Science Trustees and Honorary Science and Conservation Advisors. If one of the panel's students is under consideration, they will not participate in the discussion of that candidate and input from a co-opted panel member will be included.
  • A decision will be made by late July, and the winner will be invited to attend the a BCT conference where they will be invited to present a talk and collect the award. Costs of their attendance at the conference and travel costs will be covered.
  • The winner will receive a money prize and certificate.

Applications for the Vincent Weir Scientific Award are now open. The closing date for applications is 11:00 GMT on Monday 15th July 2024 . The winner will be announced in August 2024.

To nominate a candidate for consideration, please contact Dr Parvathy Venugopal (pvenugopal@bats.org.uk) giving a brief (300 word) justification of your nomination and supplying pdfs of the publications for which they are nominated. Typically we expect the nomination to come from a supervisor and that potential nominators are welcome to contact BCT if this is not possible.

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