Spanish Society of Statistics and Operations Research – BBVA Foundation Awards 2024

A maximum of five awards will be granted under this call, each for a gross amount of 6,000 euros, in recognition of pioneering and influential contributions to worldwide research in Statistics and Operations Research. In the event that the award goes to a candidature made up of two or more people, its monetary amount will be divided equally between them.

The awards are directed at research staff of Spanish nationality working in Statistics and Operations Research, or those of other nationalities that have conducted their investigation in a university or scientific center in Spain. They may also go to persons of any nationality for contributions made in collaboration with one or more Spanish nationals. No candidature will be admitted whose authors include persons who have received an award in any of the two immediately preceding editions.

All the required documentation for the awards should be sent in digital format to the email address of the SEIO Secretariat, oficina@seio.es, from March 19, 2024 until 14:00 (Spanish standard time) on April 30, 2024.

Once the submission period has expired and it has been established that the candidates meet the call conditions and have provided the required documentation in due time and form, they will be notified by email that their submission has been accepted and the corresponding documentation forwarded to the committee deciding the awards. If rectifiable errors are detected in the submission (or relative to letters of support), candidates will be given a non-extendible period of 10 calendar days in which to correct them, so their entries can be taken into consideration.

The awards in this call will be decided before July 15, 2024.

Article 1

Each award will go to the authors or co-authors of a specific contribution, and will comprise a diploma and a total cash prize of 6,000 euros, less the percentage deductible under current tax regulations. A maximum of one award will be given in each of the following categories:

1. Best methodological contribution in the Statistics field.
2. Best methodological contribution in the Operations Research field.
3. Best applied contribution with impact in the social arena, innovation or knowledge transfer in the Statistics field.
4. Best applied contribution with impact in the social arena, innovation or knowledge transfer in the Operations Research field.
5. Best contribution in Statistics and Operations Research applied to Data Science and Big Data.

Contributions will consist primarily of a scientific paper, which must have been published in the year 2019 or at a later date. All papers submitted will necessarily have been accepted for publication and have a DOI assigned at the moment of submission. Notwithstanding this preference, in the case of applied contributions particularly, they may take diverse forms on the condition that they represent a significant development in the disciplinary fields addressed by the awards.

Awardees will be required to take part in a presentation ceremony to be held in Madrid, and will be presented at the next SEIO conference with a special mention as having received a 2024 Spanish Society of Statistics and Operations Research – BBVA Foundation Award.

Article 2

Entries may be direct, submitted by the candidate individuals themselves, or indirect, through letters of nomination submitted by one or several SEIO members or one or more experts invited by the BBVA Foundation, acting as nominators. For correspondence purposes, please provide the name of a single candidate or submission coordinator, who will also be the person signing the submission form.

All entries should be presented in English and include the following documents in electronic format:

• Submission form completed and signed by the candidate individual (direct entries) or submission coordinator (indirect entries), downloadable from the awards website. This form will include:
  • A summary of the quality indicators of the contribution relative to the award for which it has been submitted (maximum 400 words)
  • A summary of the contribution (maximum 200 words)
• Copy of the contribution submitted in the call.
• A maximum of two letters of support, duly dated and signed by a natural person or legal representative other than those signing the letters of nomination. Letters of support should set out the importance of the contribution submitted in the call, not the career achievements of the candidates themselves. In this case, the signatories of the letters should send them directly to the SEIO Secretariat (oficina@seio.es), together with the Personal Data Processing form, with the name of the candidate or submission coordinator stated clearly in the subject line.

Article 3

The awards will be decided by a committee made up of three specialists appointed by the BBVA Foundation and a further three appointed by SEIO’s Academic Councils.

No member of the SEIO’s Executive or Academic Councils may serve on this committee.

The committee will distinguish a maximum of one contribution per category and will submit its decision for ratification to the SEIO Executive Council. In its ratification proposal, it will state the scientific relevance of the contributions selected. For each award to be granted, it will need to have the approval of a simple majority of SEIO Executive Council members, proceeding as specified in the SEIO statutes. Awards may be declared wholly or partially vacant.

Article 4

No person who has submitted, supported or in any manner recommended a candidature may serve on the committee. Any other situation of conflict of interest between committee members and candidates should be expressly declared in advance. Conflicts of interest shall be understood as follows: family relationship, manifest enmity, present or past PhD advisor or student, member of the same research group or team, co-author of a significant scientific paper published in the last ten years, present or past member of a research group or team working on the same research project in the last ten years, or any other circumstance implying a conflict of interest. In the event that some candidature is subject to a conflict of interest, the person affected may not take part in its evaluation. This same criterion will apply to the Executive Council members responsible for ratifying the awardees proposed by the committee.

In view of the above, having being apprised of the candidatures and before deliberations begin, committee members must notify the SEIO Executive Council and the BBVA Foundation of any possible incompatibility that might arise.

Article 5

The terms of current legislation on the protection of personal data will be complied with at all stages of this call.

The fact of participating in the call signifies the acceptance of its conditions and award decision, which will not be open to appeal, and renunciation of any claim in its respect of whatsoever nature.

No itemized or individual information will be provided on the submissions received or the deliberations of the committee or the SEIO Executive Council.

Any questions arising about the interpretation of these call conditions will be resolved upon by the SEIO Executive Council and the BBVA Foundation.

Exceptionally, the BBVA Foundation and SEIO reserve the right to make changes in the wording of these conditions, for duly justified reasons, for the sole purpose of clarifying their content, without such changes in any case implying a substantial or arbitrary alteration of the same. The text of these call conditions and corresponding FAQs, which you are advised to read, will be available for the duration of this call on this website, and SEIO.

The identity of the winning candidates will be published on the SEIO and BBVA Foundation websites, together with the membership of the committee and list of SEIO Executive Council members taking part in the corresponding deliberations.