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Service to Population Studies Award

Submission Form Here

1. Purpose

The Service to Population Studies Award honours exceptional contributions to demography, population studies or related fields by practitioners and experts outside academia at the time of nomination. It recognises distinguished service to the population community, celebrating cumulative achievement at a national and/or global level. This Award will be presented only at a Biennial Conference.

2. Eligibility Criteria

2.1 Career stage

  • This Award is aimed at practitioners or experts outside academia at the time of nomination with a substantial, sustained record of achievement.
  • As a guide, nominees will typically have more than 20 years of experience in demography, population studies practice, or related fields (or full-time equivalent).
  • Nominees' careers may have included one or more periods in academia, interspersed with roles in government, industry, or community settings. Eligibility is based on their status outside academia at the time of nomination, regardless of when or how many times academic roles were held during their career.
  • The majority of the nominee's service to population studies over the 20-year period should have been delivered in non-academic roles.
  • The Sub-Committee holds discretion to consider nominees outside this time period, where an exceptional and sustained record of impact is evident. Nominators are invited to contact the APA Awards Chair for an informal discussion to ascertain as to whether their candidate would meet the eligibility criteria prior to submitting a nomination.

2.2 Nature of Contribution

  • Contributions may be demonstrated through methodologies, policy, practice, community outcomes, and/or science communication on population issues more broadly.

 

2.3 Concurrent nominations

  • A nominee should not have been nominated for any of the research-related (i.e. Emerging Demographer, Mid-Career, or Research Excellence) Awards in the same nomination cycle. As all Awards are overseen by the same Sub-Committee, nominee names are checked across nomination pools each cycle. Where the same nominee has been put forward for multiple awards, the Sub-Committee will contact the nominator(s) to confirm which single Award the nomination should proceed under. Where a nominee has also received multiple nominations within a single Award (see Section 3), the Sub-Committee will contact the nominators to confirm which single nomination the Award should proceed under, before this cross-Award check is applied.

2.4 Membership

  • It is preferred that both the nominee and nominator be current financial members of the APA at the time of submission; however, nominations will still be considered regardless of the membership status of either party.
  • Current members of the APA Council or its sub-committees are not eligible to be nominated for this award.

2.5 Geographic scope

  • Nominee should have a substantive connection to Australian and global population studies, demography or related fields, e.g., be employed by an Australian-based institution, preferably be an Australian citizen or permanent resident of Australia and have worked on Australian and global population studies over a sustained period of 20 years or more.
  • Current members of the APA Awards sub-committee are not eligible to be nominated for this award. APA Council members are eligible to be nominated for this award, however will recuse themselves from ratification.

2.6 Field of service

  • Nominee's work must fall within population studies broadly defined, including but not limited to demography, population health, migration studies, spatial demography, fertility/mortality research, family planning, population and environment, population and development, Indigenous demography, historical demography, economic demography, population ageing, social analysis, and population policy.

2.7 Nomination type

  • Self-nominations are not accepted for this Award. Nominations must be made by a colleague or a collaborator.
  • Nominations must be made on the nomination form. Nominations must be made with the nominee's knowledge and consent, including confirmation of awareness of the nomination and the nominee's provision of a Resume or CV.

3. Selection Process

  • In the first year of the Award (2026), nominations open and close on the same timeline as the Emerging Demographer Award, Mid-Career Award and the Research Excellence Award.
  • In subsequent years, nominations open at the end of a given Biennial Australian Population Association conference and close two months prior to the next.
  • Submissions are accepted electronically, via the Microsoft Teams/SharePoint form on the APA website.
  • Nominations consist of written responses on the Service to Population Studies Award Online Nomination Form, plus a PDF of the nominee's Resume (up to 2 pages, minimum font 11) or CV (up to 6 pages, minimum font 11).
  • There is no prescribed Resume or CV format or content beyond this page and font limit. The nomination is considered on the basis of the nominator's submission; referee letters are therefore not needed and do not need to be sought.
  • Only one nomination may be submitted per nominee, per Award, per cycle. Where the Sub-Committee becomes aware of multiple nominations for the same nominee, it will contact the nominators to consolidate these into a single submission.

4. Unsuccessful Nominees

  • Unsuccessful nominees may be re-nominated in future years by submitting an up-to-date application. The Career Awards Sub-Committee will provide short feedback to unsuccessful nominees by email.

The APA reserves the right not to make an award in a given cycle if no nomination meets the required standard.

5. The Career Awards Sub-Committee: Role and Process

5.1 Composition

  • The Sub-Committee comprises at least four members, all serving in a volunteer capacity.
  • At least three members are appointed from within, and by the APA Council.
  • The Sub-Committee is chaired by an APA Council member appointed by the Council.  
  • One member is appointed from the current financial membership, outside the APA Council, bringing an independent, external perspective to the Sub-Committee.

5.2 Process

  • Each member independently reviews and scores every eligible nomination against the assessment rubric (below).
  • The Sub-Committee then meets to compare scores, discuss each nomination's strengths against the rubric, and rank nominees accordingly. Where a clear highest-ranked nomination emerges, this becomes the recommended recipient; where rankings are close or contested, the Sub-Committee discusses further and reaches a decision by consensus.
  • The Sub-Committee puts forward a recommended recipient and a short reasoning summary to the APA Council.

5.3 Conflict of interest

  • Before reviewing nominations, all Sub-Committee members declare any conflicts of interest with nominees (e.g., current or recent supervisory relationship, close collaborator, direct line manager, etc.).
  • A member with a declared conflict recuses themselves from scoring and discussion of that specific nomination. The remaining members then assess it.
  • Sub-Committee members may nominate candidates they have been supervised by, or collaborated with, provided they recuse themselves from scoring that nomination.

5.4 Confidentiality

  • Nomination materials and Sub-Committee deliberations are treated as confidential internal documents and are not shared outside in any manner.

5.5 Ratification

  • The Sub-Committee's recommendation is put to the APA Council for ratification prior to public announcement.
  • Once ratified, the decision is final.
 

6. Assessment Rubric Overview

For use as an overview on the APA website; detailed questions on the online nomination form are set out in Section 7.

Criterion

Weighting

What the Sub-Committee looks for

Linked question(s)

Recommended word count

Sustained contributions shaping the field, policy, practice, and/or community outcomes

50%

Evidence of the nominee's cumulative body of work, highlighting original, foundational, or innovative contributions to demography, population studies or related fields. This should include how the work has led to new systems or methodologies, and/or shaped policy, practice, or community outcomes, at a national and/or international level, with impact sustained over time.

Q1

Up to 400 words

Leadership in building the field: programs, networks, systems

20%

The nominee's role in building the discipline itself:

Founding or leading work programmes, institutions, or networks; sustained success in delivering key deliverables; driving institutional enterprise, community benefit and/or collaboration.

Q2

Up to 300 words

Mentorship, succession and legacy

20%

Sustained investment in developing successive generations of population practitioners (including career outcomes of mentees), and the nominee's broader legacy for the discipline's future.

Q3

Up to 300 words

National and international standing and recognition

10%

Intra- and inter-institutional service, major conference and workshop leadership, invited speeches, science communication on population issues, and other markers of the nominee's recognised authority and distinction in the field.

Q4

Up to 200 words

Total

100%

—

Q1–Q4

Up to 1,200 words

*Note career disruptions are excluded from consideration.

 

7. Questions

All responses below should address the nominee's contributions since PhD conferral and within the first 10 years of their career.

Q1. Cumulative contribution and impact. Describe the nominee's cumulative body of work, highlighting original, foundational, or innovative contributions to demography, population studies or related fields. This should include how the work has led to new systems or methodologies, and/or shaped policy, practice, or community outcomes, at a national and/or international level, with impact sustained over time. Recommended up to 400 words.

Q2. Leadership in building the field: programs, networks, systems Describe the nominee's role in building the discipline itself: Founding or leading work programmes, institutions, or networks; sustained success in delivering key deliverables; driving institutional enterprise, community benefit and/or collaboration. Recommended up to 300 words.

Q3. Mentorship, succession and legacy Describe the nominee’s sustained investment in developing successive generations of population experts (including career outcomes of mentees), and the nominee's broader legacy for the discipline's future. Recommended up to 300 words.

Q4. National and international standing and recognition Describe the nominees intra- and inter-institutional service, major conference and workshop leadership, invited keynote and other speeches, science communication on population issues, as well as other markers of the nominee's recognised authority and distinction in the field. Recommended up to 200 words.

Career disruptions are excluded from consideration and are not addressed in a scored question.

 

8. Recognition

The Award recipient receives:

  • Formal acknowledgement at the Awards session at the APA Biennial Conference.
  • A certificate.
  • A mention on the APA website and LinkedIn and in the APA newsletter.
  • An invitation to deliver a keynote address at the next APA Biennial Conference, in recognition of their sustained contributions and standing in the field.