The Early Career Hydrogeologists’ Network of the International Association of Hydrogeologists (IAH) has launched the new ‘Coolest Paper of the Year’ competition.

The purpose of the competition is to energise the early career hydrogeology community and encourage discussion of new and exciting hydrogeology research. It is being run entirely online, with crowd-sourced nominations and voting. The competition consists of two stages:
1. If you have graduated in the last ten years, nominate a paper published in 2013 in any peer-reviewed journal before March 31, 2014 at http://form.jotformeu.com/form/33531874976366
2. And then vote for nominated papers before May 31, 2014.
If you graduated more than ten years ago, pass this along to a colleague, postdoc or
student.
The competition is designed to be open and democratic, with a ‘bottom up’ approach. Anyone with a hydrogeology degree completed in the last 10 years can participate in the nominations and/or voting, through the online forms. The only restriction is that one person can only vote once. This structure ensures transparency and will give the outcome the genuine tag of being a ‘people’s choice award’. Self-nominations are allowed but not encouraged.

The definition of ‘cool’ has been deliberately left open to interpretation to encourage a wide array of nominations, for diverse reasons. It could be that a paper is nominated because of its originality and creativity; because of its detail, rigor; or because of its outstanding presentation – or any other reason that can be convincingly justified.

The winner of the major prize will be the primary author of the nominated paper receiving the most votes at the close of the competition on May 31, 2014. The winner will be announced and presented the prize of one year’s free IAH membership at the 2014 IAH congress in Marrakech, Morocco.
To encourage participation, additional prizes are also to be awarded at random to one participant in each of the two stages of the competition, through a random prize draw. These lucky winners will receive a title of their choice from the IAH book series.

For more information, and to nominate or vote in the competition, early career hydrogeologists are encouraged to join the Early Career Hydrogeology Network LinkedIn group, and/or follow the links on the IAH website and Facebook page. Before March 31, nominate a paper athttp://form.jotformeu.com/form/33531874976366
Looking forward to seeing your nomination! The ECHN team
Contacts: ECHN.IAH@gmail.com