The following is adapted from the original agreement between the CCDC and CCG.
The Cambridge Crystallographic Data Centre (CCDC) is a not-for-profit Company Limited by Guarantee with Charitable Status under English Law. Its general objective is the furtherance of chemistry and crystallography in all their aspects.
As part of this remit, the Board of Governors of the CCDC has agreed that the CCDC should sponsor awards and prizes for younger scientists to recognize the excellence of their published research work, or the overall quality of their poster presentations. CCDC Governors have agreed guidelines for these awards and prizes.
The Chemical Crystallography Group of the British Crystallographic Association (BCA CCG) wishes to establish an annual award for research by younger scientists. Specific conditions relating to this award are embodied in the following agreement.
The BCA Chemical Crystallography Group (BCA-CCG) agrees that:
- The BCA-CCG will create an award to be known as “The CCDC Chemical Crystallography Prize for Younger Scientists”. The CCDC will sponsor an award lecture and prize presentation at annual meetings of the British Crystallographic Association in the years 2009 – 2018 inclusive. This agreement will be reviewed in 2017 with a view to its further continuation. It is understood that the BCA-CCG reserves the right to withhold the award in any year if no suitable candidate is nominated.
- The award shall normally be made on the basis of published research within the scientific field of interest of the CCDC and BCA-CCG, defined as: “Original research in the field of chemical crystallography or the application of crystallographic information to structural chemistry. This definition shall include advances in instrumental, experimental, theoretical or computational techniques that contribute to this field.”
- Scientists nominated for the Prize shall be not more than 35 years of age on 1st January of the award year, except that up to five additional years may be allowed if there has been a significant career break during which the nominee was unable to carry out research. The Nominee must either be from the United Kingdom or have carried out the majority of their research in an establishment in the UK.
- The BCA-CCG committee will receive nominations and select the recipient of each annual award. Members of the BCA-CCG committee may be nominated, but must then be excluded from all further deliberations of the committee on this issue.
- Governors, Staff or students associated with the CCDC, if members of the committee must be excluded from deliberations concerning the award, but may be consulted on matters relating to paragraphs 2 and 3 above.
- Younger staff of the CCDC or students associated with the CCDC shall not be disbarred from nomination, provided that the conditions in Paragraphs 4 and 5 are scrupulously adhered to.
- Nominations must be sent to the Secretary of the BCA-CCG by the advertised date in any year. They should include a completed nomination form (obtainable from the Secretary), and copies of papers on which the nomination is based.
The Cambridge Crystallographic Data Centre agrees to:
- Provide a monetary Prize.
- Provide a suitable commemorative item to accompany the Prize.
- Contribute to the conference and travel costs of the recipient after discussions involving the BCA-CCG committee.
- Provide guidance on the interpretation of the conditions attached to the award.
- Arrange for a Governor, senior member of staff or other representative of the CCDC to be present at the award ceremony.
