Donald Hicks Scholarship Guidelines


1) Introduction

This scholarship is instituted in memory of Donald Hicks, OBE, a major contributor to operational research and the first Treasurer of The OR Society, who died in January 1986.

It is designed to enable a ‘young’ The OR Society member with at least two years’ working experience of Operational Research to attend and present a paper at a EURO-k or IFORS Triennial Conference.

2) Eligibility

Persons with no more than ten years' experience in OR (including time spent in postgraduate OR education) who have at least two years’ working experience, of operational research in industry, commerce, government, or in a University teaching or research post at the time of application are eligible for consideration. Members of the Awards Panel may not apply. No person may win more than one Donald Hicks Scholarship.

The use of ‘young’ as a descriptor in this award implies no restriction in terms of age, but refers solely to the length of experience in the field.

3) Value

The scholarship will cover the conference fee, together with reasonable travel and subsistence costs incurred in attending the EURO-k or IFORS Triennial Conference in the year of the award, up to a maximum total of £500 in the case of conferences held in Europe and £1000 for other conferences.

4) Entry

Candidates may nominate themselves, or may be nominated by a member of The OR Society who is a supervisor, head of OR, head of department or occupies some other responsible role. In respect of each nominee the required submission is: a detailed curriculum vitae, names and contact details of two independent referees who must be members of The OR Society, and an extended abstract of a paper which they intend to present at the conference.

Deadline is 3 March 2024. Entries should be submitted by email unless infeasible. Please send entries to [email protected].

5) Selection

The scholarship will only be awarded to a ‘young’ OR worker of outstanding promise. The successful candidate’s abstract should show promise of leading to a paper important to the development of OR. Subject to these requirements the Awards Panel shall make the award to the person who it considers, on the basis of the submitted documentation, to be the most meritorious candidate. At its discretion, the Awards Panel may make no offer if it considers that none of the candidates are of sufficient merit.

6) Conditions

Conditions of the scholarship are that:

  • the person to whom the scholarship is awarded has his/her abstract accepted
  • he/she presents a paper, based on the submitted abstract, at the conference
  • he/she submits the paper to one of the society’s refereed journals for publication, unless the paper is to appear in the published proceedings of the conference

All claims for reimbursement of conference fees, and reasonable travel and subsistence costs incurred in attending the IFORS or EURO conference must be fully substantiated by receipts and accompanied by appropriate documentation to show that the above conditions have been fully complied with.

7) Procedures

Upon receipt from EURO or IFORS of the call for papers for the conference, the Research & Publications Coordinator shall arrange for an announcement to be published in Inside OR, inviting nominations by a date chosen so as to enable the Awards Panel to adjudicate on the applications and for the successful candidate to be informed by the date on which the Conference Programme Committee announces acceptance of abstracts. The Research & Publications Coordinator shall acknowledge receipt of all nominations. At the closing date the set of completed nominations will be forwarded to all members of the Awards Panel for consideration and decision. The chair of the Awards Panel shall report the name of the successful nominee to the Research & Publications Coordinator, who shall inform the candidate and arrange for an appropriate announcement to be placed in OR Newsletter.

8) Current Awards Panel Practice

It is current practice that announcements relating to the Donald Hicks Scholarships shall be published on the society’s website as well as in Inside OR.