The Scientific Advisory Board (SAB), serves as a representative organ for the Belgian paleontological community, which democratically votes upon the proposed nominees of the Louis De Pauw Award. The election of the laureate'(s) is a democratic proces where all representatives recieve the opportunity to propose nominees based upon a few criteria. After the deadline for the nominations a vote will be cast by the SAB, who will decide upon the final laureate(s). In case of an ex aequo, the deciding vote is cast by the president of the SAB. As soon as possible the winner of the election is contacted. In the case of a refusal of the award by the laureate, the runner up will recieve the award.
Representative
The Louis De Pauw award is an award attributed by representatives of the Belgian Palaeontological community
Therefore, it is of the utmost importance that representatives of all Belgian research institutions (universities, national museums, geological surveys etc.), associations, industry and non-profit organisations are represented within the SAB. Only by the representation of these organs can the vote and descision of a laureate be valorised as a descision from the paleontological community as a whole. During the proposition, three criteria shoud be taken into account when proposing nominees:
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The nominated citizen scientist must work or has worked intensely, on Belgian paleontological topics (but does not have to live or carry the Belgian nationality)
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Students and academic researchers can only be considered if their paleontological research falls outside the scope of their field of research and is not funded by any grant or funding.
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The citizen scientist has no current (permanent or temporary) job in paleontological research, study or conservation (or former job, including persons who are retired)
Anonymous
The Louis De Pauw award is a prestigious award, where the voting and proposal of nominees is discreet
In order to avoid manipulations or pressure upon boardmembers, the voting is anonymous and representatives can always inquire to look into the final results of the voting by contacting the president of the board.
As research institutions, labs or groups are the sum of many people, we will seek out to rotate the representatives with each passing year. The selection of a board member is done by the organising committee and is by definition not always the most senior researcher of that particular institution to avoid any bias. To whoever is contacted to represent their institution, association, organisation, we advice to be discreet about the invitation. The SAB can compromise both senior and junior academics
At all times it must be possible to take a decision independently. If a member finds that this cannot be done in safe way, we advice to inform the organising committee and report this to the president of the SAB or a member of the Palaeontologica Belgica executive board as soon as possible.
Inclusive
Bringing together the professional and non-professional realms of Belgian paleontology & Earth sciences
The following list is an overview of all concerned organisations that are contacted annually to cast a vote and propose nominees for the Louis De Pauw award. In case your organisation is not yet part of this list, we appologise and ask you to contact us as quickly as possible. For the paleontological associations who are not represented within the counsil of earth sciences (RAW-SCT) we ask to apply for recognistion by the RAW-CST counsil as quickly as possible. As we aim for inclusiveness we do not want any organisation to feel left out.
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KU Leuven
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UGent
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Vrije Universiteit Brussel (VUB)
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Université Libre de Bruxelles (ULB)
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U-Liège (ULg)
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U-Mons
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U-Namur
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RAW-CST (The Belgian Council for Earth Sciences)
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RBINS (Royal Belgian Institute of Natural Sciences)
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BGS (Belgian Geological Survey)
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GBLsp (Geologica Belgica Luxemburga - scientia et professionis)
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Palaeontologica Belgica
The Scientific Advisory Board (SAB) presidency is an annual rotation between executive board members of Palaeontologica Belgica, The Belgian Counsil for Earth Science (RAW-CST) and the Geologica Belgica Luxemburga scientia et professionis (GBLsp) organisations. If you want to contact the president please write to either of the three organisations with specific inquiries that yous message is destined to the president of the SAB. Any information concerning the regulations or procedures can be asked at any given time. Complient with the European GDPR regulations we can however not communicate any names of representative board members or proposed laureates. Upon the voting day itself, all representatives will be informed of the proposed nominees individually by e-mail.