EURO Gold Medal guidelines

Policy

The EURO Gold Medal is the highest distinction within OR in Europe. It is conferred on a prominent person or team or institution, for an outstanding contribution to the Operational Research science. The award is officially bestowed in conjunction with a EURO Conference, if there is a suitable candidate.

Eligibility

The EURO Gold Medal shall be awarded for a body of work in operational research, preferably published over a period of several years. Although recent work should not be excluded, care should be taken to allow the contribution to stand the test of time. The potential prize recipient should have a recognized stature in the European OR community. Significance, innovation, depth, and scientific excellence should be stressed. To emphasize the European flavour of the Award, all societies are strongly urged not to propose a candidate from their own country. Moreover, no currently active officer of EURO (Executive Committee member, EURO Gold Medal jury member, Organising and Programme Committees Chairpersons of the conference where the EURO Gold Medal will be awarded) is eligible.

Award

The laureate receives a medal in gold, a diploma, and is invited to all future EURO Conferences without payment of the registration fees. At the EURO-k conference at which the laureate is awarded, EURO will grant the recipient's registration fee and cover travel and accommodation expenses.

Selection jury

The selection jury consists of five scholars of recognized stature in the OR community. The jury assembling starts with a core of three members who serve normally a period of three prizes, with one member added at each prize edition. The new member is nominated by the members of the old jury core subject to approval of the EURO Executive Committee and EURO Council. The chairperson is normally the member who is in the final year of service. The EURO EC then selects additionally two members serving only for the current prize edition. These are to be approved by the EURO Council. Care should be taken to make sure that the selection committee is representative of the various areas of operational research. In particular, it is important that no two members come from the same major research area in OR. The jury members must be members of one of the EURO member societies but not necessarily previous EURO Gold Medallists.

Selection process

In the year preceding each EURO Conference, the EURO Gold Medal jury should seek suggestions for and advice on potential prize recipients from a broad selection of various OR areas. This may include the EURO member national societies, the previous EURO Gold Medal laureates and jury chairs. Any proposal has to include a recent and detailed CV of the nominee, as well as a written motivation stating the reasons why the nominee deserves the EURO Gold Medal. Nominations must be made in confidence (i.e. the nominee should not be informed).

The jury evaluates the nominees essentially on the basis of their scientific activities (papers in excellent journals, editorials, jobs, number of Ph.D. students...). The selection jury is authorized to choose the award laureate (only one award may be made on each occasion) without review or approval of the selection by the EURO Executive Committee and EURO Council. In the event that an award is made to an institution, or team, EURO will cover the registration costs, travel and accommodation expenses for one representative of the institution or team to attend the conference at which the medal is awarded. Furthermore one member of the team or institution is entitled to attend all future conferences without payment of registration fees.

The decision of the jury is publicly announced at the next EURO Conference. Following a presentation of the competition by the chair of the jury, the laureate is invited to give a lecture. The laureate then receives the EURO Gold Medal and the diploma.

Time Line for the EURO Gold Medal