The European Social Simulation Association (ESSA) makes an award every other year for an outstanding contribution to the development of social simulation worldwide. The award will be celebrated at the annual Social Simulation conference. The award will be given to a scientist who stood out for their contribution to the development of social simulation worldwide. The decision will be made by the ESSA Management Committee through anonymous votes. The award will be only symbolic and will be celebrated during the closing ceremony of the 2018 Social Simulation conference. The first award was made in 2016 to Nigel Gilbert.

Nominations can be made by any member of ESSA for an individual they consider deserving of this prestigious (symbolic) accolade, which will be awarded at the Social Simulation Conference in Stockholm, Sweden, 20-24 August 2018.

The nominee need not be a member of ESSA, nor need they necessarily be a European researcher, or currently actively pursuing social simulation research, for the full criteria see those below. To nominate someone, please send a PDF of no more than 2000 words in length to the President of ESSA (Gary Polhill: gary.polhill@hutton.ac.uk) outlining the case, by Friday 15 March 2018. This should be a qualitative statement on why the individual’s research is outstanding.

The individual (if there is any) will be notified by 15 April 2018 so that they can come to the Social Simulation Conference 2018 in Stockholm.

Criteria for making the award are based on the quality of the nominee’s research, and their contribution to the advancement of social simulation in the community. The individual should have made specific theoretical or practical accomplishments that demonstrate innovation, originality and creativity. Supporting cases should address these points, as the Management Committee relies on the nominator to provide the basis on which to make an informed decision. It is therefore up to the nominator to ensure that the supporting case provides all necessary evidence of the candidate’s impact. The Management Committee reserves the right not to make the award if no suitable candidates are nominated.

In particular, a nomination should make the following clear.

• Outstanding research in social simulation. We are not particularly interested in h-factors, citation counts or other metrics. Neither is a long track-record of publishing high-quality and/or influential articles in social simulation necessary – it could be on the basis of a few exceptional publications that really stand out. At this level of recognition, there must be clear and compelling evidence that the individual has significantly influenced the directions of groups and organizations beyond those where they were employed.
• Contribution to the social simulation community. In addition to outstanding research, we are looking for an argument that the individual has made a significant contribution to the social simulation community. This could be for such things as reviewing for JASSS, supervising PhDs in social simulation, organizing special issues in other journals, organizing training courses, organizing conferences or workshops, providing teaching materials, contribution of software and/or methods. How has the individual helped ‘advance the cause’ of social simulation?

Restrictions. The individual nominated must not be a member of the current ESSA Management Committee (however, they can be: someone who is not a member of ESSA; someone who is not based in (or a citizen) of Europe; and someone who is no longer currently active in social simulation or in research).