Society Awards & Prizes

The Society supports our members through financial support and recognition for outstanding achievements. Awards refer to small grants that are given to support either research projects (Research Support Awards) or participation in conferences or other networking activities (Participation Support Awards). Prizes include special honors for outstanding publications or contributions to Deep Sea Biology, or outstanding conference contributions (best talk or poster).

Awards

Research Support Awards

Annual Deadline: 30 April

Application form: here

Maximum award: £ 2000 (GBP) to an individual applicant

These awards are designed to support the professional development of deep-sea biology researchers who do not currently have permanent employment, through supporting research activities. This includes students, post-docs, and those without current employment. The scheme provides up to a maximum of £2000 to an individual researcher towards activities that can enhance career prospects. Funds can be spent on travel, lab consumables, research-related fees (such as for sequencing costs or access to specialist services or facilities), but does not provide salary support for the applicant. Supported activities include, but are not limited to, collaborative travel visits, training, oceanographic cruise participation and laboratory work. The bursaries are open to any members of the Society that are without permanent employment, or exceptionally members from countries that are historically excluded from deep sea research.

Successful applicants will be notified by the end of May.

We also accept spontaneous applications at any time for urgent funds to support participation in deep sea cruises. To apply for cruise support, please use the same form above, but you must also email the DSBS Awards Officer (awards@dsbsoc.org). The form responses are not monitored outside of the normal annual deadline.

Participation Support Awards

Annual Deadline: 31 October

Applications are closed – results soon!

Maximum award: £ 750 (GBP) to an individual applicant

These awards are designed to support society members who do not currently have permanent employment, through supporting participation in conferences, workshops, or other related networking events. Priority is given to students, post-docs, and those without current employment. Funds can be used for any costs (considered very broadly) to provide whatever applicants need to facilitate their participation in a conference. This could include registration fees, travel costs, accommodation or childcare (including enabling full participation in online conferences).

The deadline is set in October in anticipation of conferences normally in July of the following year. We understand that applicants may have limited knowledge of the event (for example abstract deadlines are normally still open the time of the deadline). This deadline is designed to enable applicants security to plan their participation in advance.

Successful applicants will be notified by the end of November.

Prizes

The same nomination process is applied to all publication prizes; in writing the nomination statement please clearly explain how the paper fits the criteria for the selected prize.

The prize will be one-year free membership of the Society and a £100 cash prize. This prize is open to all members at any career stage.

Annual Deadline: 31 January

Application form: here.

For publication prizes, the following terms and conditions apply:

Publication (online-early or in print) date must be within the last three years before the deadline.
Nominations may be provided from any member of the Society.
The recipient (author of the paper) does not need to be a member of the Society to receive the award.
Papers led by Trustees of the Society are not eligible. Papers co-authored by Trustees of the Society are eligible. (Where a Trustee or members of a Trustee’s research lab are linked to an application, the relevant Trustee will be omitted from discussion with regard to that application.)
The primary focus of study must be related to the biology of the deep sea below 200 m.
Nominations must include a digital object identifier (DOI) of the paper and the paper must be already published and accessible.

Outstanding PhD-thesis Paper

This award is to recognise a promising young researcher in the area of deep-sea biology. The paper must originate from a Ph.D. thesis within three years of the award deadline. In order to apply a digital object identifier (DOI) of the paper must be submitted, and the nominator needs to explain (max. 200 words) the significance of the paper to deep-sea biological science.

The first author of the paper must be a current or recent Ph.D. student and a member of Society. Preference is given to papers that form a core aspect of the Ph.D. thesis (e.g. a published chapter).

Outstanding Paper

In order to apply, a digital object identifier (DOI) of the paper must be submitted, and the nominator must explain (max. 200 words) the significance of the paper to deep-sea biological science.

Application links

If you have any questions please contact the DSBS Awards Officer (awards@dsbsoc.org)