First call for nominations: BCS IRSG Search Industry Awards

For many years the IRSG has awarded prizes in various forms, e.g. the Karen Sparck Jones award, best paper at ECIR, etc. These awards help create a sense of community and provide recognition to individual members for their work.

However, the current awards programme is aimed almost exclusively at researchers, with little recognition given to practitioner contributions. This is despite the fact that the BCS as a whole is primarily a professional organisation and the majority of IRSG members are practitioners. The IRSG Search Industry Awards aim to address this disparity.

We are delighted therefore to launch this year’s Search Industry Awards, celebrating the best search innovations of 2016. Presented by the Information Retrieval Specialist Group of the BCS, these awards recognize people, projects, and companies that have excelled in the design of search and information retrieval products and services.

If you know of any companies, projects, or products that deserve recognition, let us know by submitting a recommendation. Alternatively, if you’re involved with something special yourself, you can submit an application today via http://goo.gl/forms/t4b4xTlicWeqlUIr1

CATEGORIES
For 2016 we are offering three awards:

    Best search project
    Most promising start up
    Best paper / presentation (at Search Solutions 2016)

The third award is open only to presenters at Search Solutions, and will be judged on the day. For all others, apply today!

JUDGING PANEL
Winners will be selected by our panel of judges. We are grateful to these individuals for lending their expertise to the BCS Search Industry Awards:

    Charlie Hull (Managing Director, Flax)
    Helen Lippell (Search and Taxonomy Consultant)
    Judi Vernau (Director, Metataxis)

AWARDS CEREMONY
The awards ceremony will take place during Search Solutions at BCS London on November 30th. Winners will receive a framed certificate, bottle of wine, and a public listing on the IRSG Awards site.

APPLICATIONS
We’ve designed the application process to be simple to complete:

http://goo.gl/forms/t4b4xTlicWeqlUIr1

If you are unsure which category to apply for, or have questions about the application process, contact us via the address below. Nominations will remain open until 1st November 2016.

CONTACT
If you have any questions on the above, please contact Tony Russell-Rose via irsg AT bcs.org.

::: About IRSG :::
The IRSG is a Specialist Group of BCS. Its mission is to provide a focus for the European IR community, facilitate communication between researchers and practitioners and promote the adoption of IR research within industry. We host a major European conference (ECIR) and provide an assopciated programme of workshops, seminars and events. To join the IRSG, visit the BCS website, which provides access to further IR articles, events and resources.

BCS is the industry body for IT professionals. With members in over 100 countries around the world, BCS is the leading professional and learned society in the field of computers and information systems.