The Cooperative Research Centre for Polymers is a collaborative research venture bringing together industry (BTR Automotive, Dupont, Moldflow, Montell, Olex Cables, Orica, Sola International, Southcorp Packaging and Visiplastics), government (ANSTO, CSIRO and DSTO) and academia (the Department of Materials Engineering, Monash University; the School of Chemical Engineering and Industrial Chemistry, University of NSW; the Departments of Chemical and Metallurgical Engineering, Applied Physics and Applied Chemistry, RMIT; and the Department of Mechanical and Mechatronic Engineering, Sydney University). It has established research programs across the fields of polymer science, in polyolefins, engineering resins, thermosets, reactive processing, recycling and modelling.

The Centre sponsors a prize for a report based on project work in any field of Polymer Science or Engineering.

The prize includes a cash component of $1,500 and financial support to enable attendance at the PPC 11 in December 2009. The competition is open to all students who have completed a research project as part of the requirement for a Bachelors or Honours degree in a relevant area of Engineering, Materials Science or Chemistry during the 2008 year. The applicant must be a current student member of the Royal Australian Chemical Institute or the New Zealand Institute of Chemistry or be applying for membership as part of the application. The report may be the students final year project report or honours thesis. It is expected that the project report will be a concise, high-quality document of original, well presented science and technology. The research reported must have been conducted and written up by the applicant. A statement to this effect, signed by the students supervisor, should accompany the application. The report will be reviewed for scientific merit, creativity, originality and presentation by a panel appointed by a nominee of the RACI Polymer Division Standing Committee.

Further information and Application forms may be obtained from The Cooperative Research Centre for Polymers, 32 Business Park Drive, Notting Hill, Victoria 3168. Phone: 03 9558 8111, Fax: 03 9558 8122, Email: polymers@crcp.com.au Competition entries (three copies) should be submitted to the above address. The closing date for this competition is 14 December 2008. The CRC reserves the right to withhold the award if no applications of sufficient merit are received. The previous recipients of the Award are: