Alice Edwards Breakthrough Researcher Award 2025

Closing Date for Applications: 10 February 2025

Applications for the Alice Edwards Breakthrough Researcher Award 2025 for participation in the 32nd Annual Conference of the Australian and New Zealand Society of International Law are now open.  

Purpose of the Award

The purpose of the Award it to encourage and foster the research of the most talented and promising doctoral students and early career researchers from Australia, New Zealand and the Pacific Islands whose research in international law is making, or is likely to make, a significant contribution to finding solutions to some of the world’s most pressing global or regional challenges. One or two awards will be made to assist in enabling doctoral students and early career researchers to present at the ANZSIL Annual Conference.

Previous Award Winners

Selection for the Award

One or two Awards will be made per year.  

Selection will be based on the quality of abstracts, taking into account the need for the underlying research to offer solutions and/or make a significant contribution to pressing global issues in international human rights law, international refugee law, international statelessness law, international humanitarian law or international criminal law.

Selection for the Award will be undertaken by a sub-committee of the ANZSIL Annual Conference Organising Committee. The decision of the sub-committee is final.

In the interests of advancing women’s participation in international law, at least one Award per year will be granted to a woman.

Eligibility

To be eligible for the Award for the 32nd ANZSIL Annual Conference, applicants must fall into one of the two categories listed below, and meet all the eligibility criteria within that category:

1.     An Australian or New Zealand citizen or holder of an Australian or New Zealand refugee or stateless protection visa or equivalent. An applicant in this category must be enrolled at the time of application as a part-time or full-time PhD student at any university worldwide or have been awarded their PhD on or after 1 January 2020. 

2.     A citizen of a Pacific Island* not otherwise included in category 1. An applicant in this category must be enrolled at the time of application as a part-time or full-time PhD student in an Australian or New Zealand university or have been awarded their PhD from an Australian or New Zealand university on or after 1 January 2020. 

The eligibility criteria for this award in relation to date of conferral of an applicant's PhD accord with the Australian Research Council's Eligibility and Career Interruptions Statement. This means that the eligibility period will be extended for any applicant for the Award who has experienced an ‘eligible career interruption’ as defined in this statement for the relevant period of time specified in the statement.

*For these purposes, the following are included: Cook Islands, Federated States of Micronesia, Fiji, Kiribati, Marshall Islands, Nauru, Palau, Papua New Guinea, Samoa, Solomon Islands, Tokelau, Tonga, Tuvalu, and Vanuatu.

Applicants do not need to be current members of ANZSIL to apply for the Award.

Benefits

Either one or two Awards will be made per year for the purposes of enabling one or two recipients to present at the ANZSIL Annual Conference.  The Award will comprise up to $2,500 AUD per recipient to be used towards the cost of accommodation at, and travel to, the ANZSIL Annual Conference where the recipient is presenting. The amount of each award will be decided by the sub-committee established to select the recipients, after consultation with the ANZSIL Treasurer, based on the parameters to be determined by the ANZSIL Council.

The conference fee for the ANZSIL Annual Conference will be waived for recipients of the Award in the year of receipt of the Award.

The recipient of the Award will be entitled to one year of free ANZSIL membership.

In the event that no applicant meets the criteria for selection of the Award, no Award will be made.  

Applications

Information about the 32nd ANZSIL Annual Conference, including the conference theme is available here. The link to the application form for the Alice Edwards Breakthrough Researcher Award is here. The due date for applications is 10 February 2025.