DRA is a UK wide academic competition which is awarded annually to junior researchers who are pursuing (or have recently completed) doctoral degrees in the UK. It has been organised annually since 2012. DRA's purpose is to promote and reward academic and scientific excellence among young researchers who will be the world class academics of the future. Indeed, despite being founded less than a decade ago, one is already witnessing the emergence of the leading scientists from the past winners of DRA who have reached the highest-ranking positions in the academia. Over the years, thanks to our supporters, DRA has evolved considerably both in scale and quality. This year we are proud to open the call for the 11th DRA, yet another wonderful journey awaits ahead which will be concluded at the grand ceremony. We are indebted to the intellectual support of our reviewers and financial support of our sponsor (Springer Nature and Applied Sciences) and local donators.


Eligibility criteria

Please look at the following criteria to assess your eligibility to apply.

• Candidates can be of any nationality

• Candidate must be enrolled in a PhD program from an institution based in the UK

• Candidate must have been enrolled for at least 2 years in their PhD programme, and less than 1 year after PhD graduation.



Application

To apply for the DRA, the candidate must submit

• CV. The CV must contain education details, a list of publications, conference presentations and awards, as well as of any activity falling within the remit of academic citizenship.

• Representative publication. Select your best paper or piece of writing.

• Research Statement. The research statement must convey to a non-expert the importance of the research, its novelty, your methodology and personal contribution to the field.



Evaluation Criteria

The essence of the DRA is to assess the potential of the candidate for becoming a future leading academic in their field. The evaluation committee will therefore pay particular attention to:

• Strength of the research portfolio (publications, conference presentations, awards).

• Communication to a non-expert audience.

• Academic citizenship.



Your Data

By submitting an application:

• You approve that your data will be communicated to the evaluation panel consisting of committee members and expert referees.

• You approve that (if you attend the ceremony as a finalist) images and/or recordings with you may be shared online by DRA.