GAABS Annual Awards for 2022/2023

Pelle Round

“GAABS has a member base of excellent and inspiring behavioural practitioners. The Awards are the platform they deserve to showcase their high quality behavioural science applications.”

— Pelle Hansen, Behavioural Scientist at Roskilde University and GAABS Advisor

Background

The Global Association of Applied Behavioural Scientists (GAABS) exists to safeguard and maintain the quality and standards of its applied behavioural scientist members. GAABS also represents the interests of its current and future members and serves as an organisational platform to promote our member’s insights and applications.

Our Annual Awards Programme has been designed to help achieve these aims by recognising examples of high quality applied behavioural science and highlighting the wealth of skills and creativity that exists within our membership community.

The Awards will take place each year with announcements of winners being made in April.

Winners and commended entries for the 2022 / 23 Awards will be announced Friday 21st April 2023.

The Awards

For 2022 / 2023 there will be three awards made.

  1. Overall Winner: The prize will be awarded to the entry that the judges feel exemplifies the best use of applied behavioural science. Entries should address a specific behavioural issue, demonstrate an understanding of the wider context, identify how intervention(s) were conceived and tested.

    Entries that offer a broad real-world application, align with the GAABS’ ethical framework and result in verifiable results and impact will likely fare well in this category.

    This award is open to individual and organisational members.

  2. Best Null Event: Not an oxymoron. This award recognises the value of knowing what doesn’t work as much as what does. The prize will be awarded to the entry that the judges feel represents an excellent example of applied behavioural science (using the same criteria for the overall winner category) where a useful learning emerges despite demonstrating a zero effect.

    Entries that offer fellow GAABS members and practitioners a valuable means of learning and that serve to help peers to potentially avoid ineffective and inefficient behaviourally informed approaches are encouraged to enter this category.

    This award is open to individual and organizational members.

  3. Individual Member Award: Awarded to the GAABS member who, in the opinion of the Chair and Executive Team, has contributed most value to GAABS and the wider Behavioural Science community. The award, therefore, will not be an applied project but rather a reflection of impact and meaningful contribution of a Behavioural Science individual. This could be via a local GAABS chapter, the encouragement and collaboration across the GAABS of network or something else.

    This award is open to individual members.

Important Dates

Closing dates for entry for 2022 / 23 Awards will be Friday 17th March 2023.

Shortlisted entries will be notified by Friday 7th April 2023.

The award announcements will be made at an event on Friday 21st April 2023.

Judging Panel

The Judging panel of 5 will be made up of 3 x GAABS Executive Members, 1 x Advisory Board Member and 1 x external judge (likely to be a high-profile CEO, CMO or similar).

Entry Criteria

  1. Entries will be accepted for applied work carried out in the previous three years in recognition that some applied field work and experiments can often take >12 months to complete.
  2. Entrants must be made by a GAABS member (either individual or organisational).
  3. Entrants from collaborations / partnerships between individual GAABS members are encouraged. In the case of collaborations at least 50% of the entrants must fulfil GAABS criteria for membership.
  4. Entrants that are collaborations between GAABS members and a commercial, public sector or not-for-profit organisation are also welcomed. So, too, is work conducted by a GAABS member for a client.
  5. In the case of work carried out on behalf of a client, it is important that all entries are accompanied with verifiable permission from the organisation concerned that they are happy for the work to be entered.
  6. Where entries feature material owned by an end client or external supplier or any other copyright holder, permission must also be submitted with the entry.
  7. GAABS members are permitted to submit a maximum of TWO entries across one or both Overall Winner and Best Null Event categories.
  8. GAABS Executive Members and Advisory Board Members are not eligible to apply.

Entry Requirements

  1. Entries entry must take the form of (a) a maximum 2500-word paper, (b) a case study, or (c) a presentation.
  2. A 250 – 300 word executive summary of the work (including the key (null) results) should also accompany each entry.
  3. Submissions should be uploaded as PDFs via the upload button below.
  4. Paper copies will not be accepted for entry.
  5. Any images or supporting graphs and visuals used to support / illustrate the entry uploaded separately. A maximum of 3 per entry.
  6. Each entry must be submitted by a current GAABS member who is in good standing.
  7. Only one entry will be accepted for each project or initiative. If you wish to enter a project that includes a multiplicity of separate interventions to address different outcomes within the same project these should be submitted individually.
  8. Entries that include several interventions to address a single outcome and that tested against each other at the same time will be regarded as a single entry.
  9. Should your entry contain sensitive or private information this should clearly be stated on your entry in RED BOLD TEXT. Please highlight information that is not in the public domain to ensure that sensitive information is not published.
  10. GAABS is not liable for issues related to entry requirements. An email confirming a successful upload of an entry will be sent to all submissions.
  11. Closing date for entry for 2022 / 23 Awards will be 5:00pm GMT on Friday 17th March 2023.
  12. Entrants assign GAABS the right to feature entries and winners on the GAABS website, social media channels and for general promotional purposes.

Awards Ceremony and Publicity

  1. Entries shortlisted will be notified by Friday 7th April 2023 and, ideally, expected to attend the Award Ceremony.
  2. Awards will be given to the winner and up to 2 x highly commended entries per category
  3. Winners will receive a coveted, custom-made GAABS trophy
  4. Highly Commended entries (max 2 per category) will receive a smaller trophy plaque
  5. All winners and highly commended entries will be entitled to display their winner status and use it as ‘creds’ on their websites and business materials
  6. Awards ceremony will be open to all members and their guest
  7. GAABS, through its partnership with MHPC, will seek opportunities to secure press coverage of the awards and the winners although this cannot be guaranteed.