The "Young Scientist Award (YSA)" is a high level scientific contest organised by the project ProMembrane.

 

Members of ProMembrane consortium believe that support of promising scientists and researchers at the beginning of their careers is critical for continued scientific progress. In this regard, one of the main objectives of ProMembrane is to encourage the permanent participation of young students and researchers from the Mediterranean Partner Countries (MPC) in the field of membrane technology.

 

Therefore, the "Young Scientist Award" seeks to recognise outstanding research of M. Sc. Students, PhD students and Post-doc from the Middle East and North Africa, and reward their research in the field of membrane technologies for sustainable treatment and reuse of water and wastewater in the Mediterranean zone.

 

The contest was carried out separately in two regions:

 

YSA Region A: Middle East, including Syria, Palestine, Lebanon and Jordan.

 

YSA Region B: North Africa, including Egypt, Libya, Algeria, Tunisia and Morocco.

 

The eligibility criteria was defined by the consortium and ten applications were received, four from region A and six for region B. Within the frame of the two Regional Fairs (Syria, Sep. 2007 and Egypt, Oct. 2007) organised by ProMembrane, some of the applicants made a presentation of their work.

 

The evaluation process was carried out  by members of the ProMembrane scientific committee and the applications were ranked according to the points obtained (see ranking).

 

All applicants were notified about the results of the evaluation and the best three from each region have been invited to participate in the ProMembrane International Conference (4-6 May 2008, in Sfax, Tunisia), as well as to the International Symposium on Biotechnology (4-8 May 2008, in Sfax, Tunisia). The project will cover the costs of their participation in these two events (entrance fee, travel and accomodation).

 

In addition to this, the first place of each region will get a 600 Euro cash prize at the ProMembrane International Conference.

 

Finally, the six works selected will be included in the International Conference Proceedings Publication and will be published in the Database of Documents of the ProMembrane online public library.