A leading supplier of advanced materials and metals has launched a global competition to boost the impact of early career researchers, PhD and Master’s students.
Goodfellow, which serves customers in aerospace, medical, electronics, energy and future tech, has an £8000 prize fund waiting for entrants who submit a poster detailing a current project that utilises a material from the firm’s 170,000-strong catalogue.
Open to universities and researchers from across the world, teams will also have to submit a 250-word ‘abstract’ explaining the innovation they are pursuing and how the chosen materials will be used to accelerate the findings.
The PDF poster must be uploaded here by December 18th, where a ten-strong shortlist will be drawn-up to go in front of the ‘material dragons’, a carefully chosen team of research and scientific experts.
“Posters are often the first place new research is shared, especially by PhD students, Master’s students and early-career researchers,” said Dr Aphrodite Tomou, Head of Technical at Goodfellow.
“They are a compact, visual summary of a project, designed to be read standing up at a conference, departmental showcase or symposium. They usually serve as a conversation starter rather than a complete account of the work and are ideal for this type of competition.”
She went on to add:
“A lot of our materials and metals are used to pioneer breakthroughs in new technology, life-saving treatments and cleaner mobility and our team are determined to support the next generation of innovators.
“The competition will shine a light on some of the future stars and their projects, as well as giving them the opportunity to win funding that can be spent on world class material they need to take their research to the next stage.”
The Goodfellow Research Poster competition will come to a dramatic finale in January, when the shortlisted entrants are announced and get to pitch their ideas in a 15-minute online presentation.
Designed to create a Dragons’ Den type of environment, they will aim to impress a high-profile Goodfellow judging panel made up of Aphrodite, Dr Maheera Ghani, Dr Arunima Nair, Adam Sells and potentially a guest expert that will be revealed shortly.
Each entry will be scored on ‘Scientific Quality’ (rigor of the method and the results), ‘Role of the Material’ (how central it is to the work and how well its use is understood) and ‘Potential Impact’, exploring how far the work could be applied or deployed beyond the lab.
The final element under the microscope will be ‘Communication’ and how clearly the poster tells the story.
Aphrodite continued:
“Our overall winner will collect £5000 to spend on our material, as well as having the opportunity to host a Goodfellow ‘talk’ to students in their department.
“Second and third place entrants will be given £2000 and £1000 respectively, with all posters set to receive detailed feedback from our panel of experts.”
She concluded:
“We hope researchers and students will get behind this new competition and showcase the global talent we have, talent that will undoubtedly be responsible for shaping how the world develops.”
Located at its modern site in Huntingdon, Goodfellow supplies advanced metals, alloys, ceramics, polymers, compounds, and composites to a growing international client base.
The company, which recently expanded into a new US production facility, provides materials, precision micro machining, and technical support to help customers move innovations from research and development into full-scale production.