EARLY CAREER AWARD COMMITTEE

Statement on Conflict of Interest

The International Academy for Intercultural Research (IAIR) seeks to honor and recognize developing scholars who are moving the intercultural and cross-cultural research fields forward into the future.  This award recognizes individuals who have made substantial contributions to the field of intercultural relations early in their careers. This circle of research is small compared to other disciplines, and academic scholars who study this field almost always have co-published or had some close interactions with other scholars on a similar topic. 

It is therefore crucial that the evaluation process for the Early Career Award be conducted in a professional manner that is objective, fair, and transparent.  The Award is given out once every 2 years. Approximately 6 months prior to the IAIR Biennial conference. A call for Award Application is put out and applicants MUST be nominated by a Fellow of the Academy. Individuals are eligible for this award if they have made substantial contributions to intercultural relations within six (6) years of receiving a PhD or equivalent advanced degree. As part of the nomination, the nominee’s current curriculum vitae; several of the nominee’s representative publications; and the names, and the addresses of two other people who may be contacted for reference letters.

The Early Career Award Committee members are required to evaluate all submissions in a manner that is professional and honourable.

Prior to the evaluation, all committee members must declare a Conflict of Interests (COI), if (i) they know of any applicant personally, (ii) whether they had previously or are currently working jointly on any research projects and/or publications, and (iii) if they nominated any of the people and/or is listed as a potential reference letter provider.  The statement will not disqualify a committee member affected by (i) and/or (ii).  However, a committee member making a nomination/or writes a recommendation for a nominee would abstain from the evaluation process.

Importantly, other than point (iii) the objective of this declaration is to hold individual committee member accountable for their judgement, such that it is unbiased and visible to all.

The disclosure on COI must be made to the Chair after receiving the nominees’ documents, but before the evaluation commences. The Chair may require an Award committee member to recuse from evaluating an applicant’s submission if there is a compelling reason for doing so, for instance, the nominee and a committee member have published together.  Should ALL, or several committee members have some form of COI, then the executive council of the academy will constitute an ad-hoc committee to see to the evaluation. 

The Award committee member who has a COI shall evaluate all submissions except the applicant’s whose abstract is affected by a COI.  This Award committee member shall provide to the Chair, details of his or her assessments and benchmarks used in evaluating all abstracts, and these documentations shall enable the appointed external reviewer to make an informed judgment on where the COI-affected abstract stands vis-à-vis the rest of the submissions.

The process and declaration on Conflict of Interests is a transparent one.  It will not disadvantage any Award committee member who may a scholar eligible for the award but at the same time, it will hold the Award Committee and the Chair accountable for their decisions, and to uphold integrity, impartiality, and transparency.

Given the Executive Council is required by the by-laws to approve the designee(s) of this award, there exists the potential for a conflict of interest.  In the event that a member of the Executive Council has a conflict of interest, then they must declare that conflict of interest and abstain from the approval vote by the Executive Council.