The KKP Award is given to practicing chemical researchers in their early career with the most meritorious and promising original investigations in chemistry and published results of those investigations. The award will be given annually to deserving members of the KKP.

A. Incentives and Obligation

The awardee will receive a medallion/plaque of recognition and a cash gift of PhP 25,000 and shall present an oral plenary lecture during the International Conference on Chemistry on February 15-17, 2023.

B. Selection

The awardee will be selected by the KKP Award Selection Panel appointed by the KKP Board of Directors and Officers from the submitted nominations.

C. Eligibility

1. Nominees should be an early career scientist, after 2 years of completion of their PhD, and typically with no more than 5 years of full-time equivalent professional experience
2. This should be experience gained as part of a scientific career excluding time spent in full-time education. Time spent as a postgraduate student should not be included e.g., Masters, PhD. Time spent as a post-doctoral researcher should be included.
3. The professional experience should also include work gained outside of country
4. Consideration will also be given to those who have taken career breaks.
5. The award will be granted regardless of race, gender, age, religion, ethnicity, nationality, sexual orientation, gender expression, gender identity, presence of disabilities, and educational background.

D. Guidelines for Nominations

1. Duration
   Nominations will open on 05 January 2023 and will close on 20 January 2023.
2. Nominators
   Only KKP members can nominate for this award. Nominees may NOT nominate themselves. The identity of nominators is not made known to the selection panel. The KKP reserves the right to amend nominations if necessary to ensure the anonymity of the nominator.
3. Nominees
   3.1 The award is open to KKP members only. This will be checked by KKP staff and the nominee’s KKP membership must be confirmed at the point of nomination. It is not sufficient to have a membership application in process.
   3.2 The award is only open to KKP members who are currently working locally during the time of the award cycle.
   3.3 Individuals named in any of the following roles during the nomination and judging period are not eligible to nominate or be nominated:
   a. KKP Division Presidents
   b. KKP Selection Panel members
   c. Officers and Board of Directors of the KKP
4. The Nomination Process
   The integrity and quality of all awardee selections should reflect the premier status of the KKP national award for recognizing excellence in contributions to the chemical sciences and society.
   The nomination process for KKP National Awards is done online and is simple to complete, if all the materials have been prepared prior to logging into the nomination in the application link (https://www.KKP.org.ph/awards). Logging in also requires the KKP member number. We strongly encourage the formation of a nomination team at your place of employment or within your local section or division to annually identify and nominate worthy individuals who exemplify the mission of the KKP and meet award criteria.
   
   4.1 Nominators have five particular requirements to address. They are expected to:
   a. supply all the information requested in the application link (https://bit.ly/KKPEmergingResearcher);
   b. make certain the nominee meets the specific eligibility requirements of the award described on the national award website;
   c. clearly address how your nominee meets all set criteria for the award, including the criteria used for award selection;
   d. identify two individuals to provide primary and secondary support letters; and,
   e. submit a complete nomination by the January 20, 2023 deadline.
   
   4.2 Nomination materials should be prepared using Word or PDF format before starting the online process. You may want to ask a colleague or others on the nominating team to critique the nomination materials. Please review the Awards Nomination details about each of the following nomination entries:
   a. The nominee’s full name, contact details, and KKP membership number. Please contact the KKP Membership Head Dr. David Peñaloza, Jr. (kkpcorpsec@gmail.com) if the membership details are not known. The KKP membership must be confirmed at the point of nomination as it is not sufficient to have a membership application in process.
   b. A suggested citation describing what the nominee should be awarded for if the nominee receives the award; this must be no more than 25 words and no longer than one sentence.
   c. An up-to-date CV for the nominee (no longer than one A4 side, 11pt text), which should include a summary of their education and career.
   d. Details (title, author/inventor list, publication year, DOI/reference no., abstract) of up to 5 or more relevant publications/patents. These details should not be included on the nominee’s CV but will be collected separately on the nomination form. Publications, products, patents, achievements, consequences, etc. are to be aligned with the award and selection criteria and other nomination materials.
   e. A supporting statement (up to 750 words) addressing the selection criteria. As committee members will carry out their initial assessments without full details of relevant publications, please ensure this supporting statement clearly sets out how the scientific content of supporting publications addresses the selection criteria.
   f. A recommendation or a required support letter of no more than 400 words that addresses the criteria and a second support letter (optional, but recommended) that addresses the criteria.
   g. A statement (up to 100 words) describing the nominee’s broad contributions to the scientific community.

E. Selection Criteria

The selection committee will base their evaluations on the overall quality of relevant contributions and achievements by nominees, in relation to the selection criteria listed below.

1. The selection committee will consider the following aspects of nominations for this award:
   a. Originality of research
   b. Impact of research
   c. Quality of publications and/or patents and/or software
   d. Innovation
   e. Professional standing
   f. Independence
   g. Collaborations and teamwork
   h. Other indicators of esteem indicated by the nominator
2. The selection committee in selecting the award winner may include these considerations in the criteria:
   a. alignment of work with the award’s purpose, eligibility, and/or criteria;
   b. significance and impact of this work on the field/discipline and on the chemical enterprise;
   c. excellence of the work;
   d. innovativeness of the approach used;
   e. potential or realized impact and benefits of the work on society; and,
   f. service to the scientific community.

Important considerations

Please remember to pay particular attention to addressing the specific award criteria and the additional criteria used by the selection committee in selecting award winners. This approach is crucial in all the nomination materials, including the brief biographical sketch. The selection committee will use only what is submitted in the nomination package in selecting the award winner.

F. Evaluation Process:

1. The KKP Board of Directors (BOD) Committee on Awards, after having the documents checked for completeness, shall forward the documents including the prescribed score sheet to the Award Selection Panel not later than three (3) working days after closing of nominations. The Committee will send a formal communication to each nominee that they have been nominated, and that they shall prepare for an oral plenary lecture in case they will be awarded.
2. The Chair of the Award Selection Panel will call a meeting through physical or virtual means and convene the members to screen and evaluate the nominations en banc not later than the three (3) working days upon receipt of the documents.
3. The Award Selection Panel members shall submit their recommendations, together with the accomplished score sheets of all the nominees, to the Chair of the Award Selection Panel not later the five (5) working days after the en banc meeting.
4. Upon receipt of the Award Selection Panel’s evaluation report, the Selection Panel Chair shall check the rated score sheets of all nominees and verify the recommendations submitted by the Award Selection Panel. The Panel Chair shall then endorse the evaluation report together with the recommendation of nominated awardee and all supporting documents of the nominees to the KKP BOD Committee on Awards not later than three (3) working days after receiving the Panel’s evaluation reports.
5. In case of a tie in scores, or a final recommendation still needs resolution by further discussion, the Panel Chair may call for another meeting by either physical or virtual means.
6. The KKP BOD Committee on Awards, upon receipt of the evaluation results from the Award, shall review the Panel recommendations and submits not later than 8th of February all recommendations for the awards to the Governing Board for final approval. The decision of the Board of Directors is deemed final and unappealable.
7. Once the BOD has made final approval, a formal notice to the nominee will be sent by the KKP President and the announcement of successful nominee will be made at the KKP website.
8. The citation of the award will be drafted based on the submitted proposed citation during the nomination.