OIPEEC sponsors and presents an award for papers by young researchers on investigations relating to rope endurance and related topics. The next award is due to be made at the General Assembly in 2006. The OIPEEC Award aims to stimulate an interest in the study of rope endurance by encouraging young research workers to contribute to this field. OIPEEC has set aside an amount of two thousand Swiss Francs for the prize, the final value depending on the Jury’s discretion and level of entries received. The competition is open to anyone less than thirty-three years old when submitting their entry.

Regulations

The aim

An understanding of the complex interactions that govern the behaviour of rope throughout its wide range of practical applications is important for reasons of both safety and economy. The OIPEEC Award aims to stimulate an interest in the study of rope endurance by encouraging young research workers to contribute to this field.

The award

In addition to awarding the winner a certificate, OIPEEC has set aside an amount of two thousand Swiss Francs for the prize, the final value depending on the jury’s discretion and level of entries received.

Participation

Applications for the award will be considered from technical students, undergraduates, postgraduate students, or other young research workers in the field of rope technology. Candidates must be under the age of thirty-three years at the time of submitting their entry. The entry should be in the form of a paper describing their research studies suitable for printing in the OIPEEC Bulletin (a maximum length of 6000 words should be taken as a guideline). The entry may be in any of the four languages recognised by OIPEEC (English, French, German, Italian) but with a summary in English and with all table and figure captions given in English if that is not the language used. Additionally the author of the winning paper must undertake to provide an English translation of the paper for publication. The entry must be supported by a recommendation from a senior academic or senior engineer active in the field of rope research, or any member of the OIPEEC Management Committee.

An initial selection of up to five entries will be made by the Editor of the Bulletin and one other member of the Management Committee, based on relevance and technical merit. The papers selected will be passed to the jury who will determine the overall winner. The winning paper will be published in the Bulletin. Other selected papers may also be published, with the approval of their authors.

Jury

The selected entries will be assessed by a Jury of three members of the Management Committee; normally, at least one being a representative of a university, and one from a rope manufacturer and one from a government laboratory or authority. The Jury will not include anyone from the same organisation as the entrant being assessed. The members of the Jury will be of different nationalities.

In judging the entries the Jury will take account of the following aspects:

- the scientific level and the originality of the entries;

- the relevance of the entries to rope research and rope application;

- the balance between theory and experiment; and

- the presentation of the entries.

The Jury will report to the Management Committee making a recommendation for the winning entry and the amount of the final award.

The Jury report is final.

Announcement

The particulars of this OIPEEC initiative will be sent to a number of universities, to editors of relevant periodicals and to research institutions for publication.

The composition of the jury will be published in the OIPEEC Bulletin.

The Management Committee asks members of OIPEEC to bring this initiative to the notice of anyone interested.

Publication

The copyright remains with the authors of the entries. However, the Management Committee of OIPEEC, retains the right to publish, or have published, the entries as received or in edited form.

Entries

Candidates for the award must submit five copies of their entry to the editor of the OIPEEC Bulletin:

Dr. Isabel Ridge
CASAR Drahtseilwerk Saar GmbH
Casarstraße 1
D-66459
Kirkel
Germany

E-mail: Isabel Ridge