To encourage more young statisticians to take an active interest in official statistics, the International Association for Official Statistics (IAOS) – an association under the International Statistical Institute (ISI) – has announced its next annual competition for the best paper in the field of official statistics written by a young statistician. In addition to the monetary prizes, the first place winner will receive travel funds to present the paper at one of the sessions of the next IAOS Conference to be held in Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates on 6-8 December 2016.

The submitters are encouraged to address, and propose solutions to, pressing methodological or strategic issues in the area of official statistics at the regional, national or international level. An international panel will judge the papers based on the following criteria:

• Scientific and/or strategic merit;
• Originality;
• Applicability of the ideas in statistical offices or in the practice of official statistics; and
• Quality of the exposition.

Papers must be submitted before 11:59 pm on 15 December 2015 according to (GMT) timing.

The decision of the panel will be final. Prizes will only be awarded if papers of significant quality are submitted.

The paper must be ten or fewer pages in length plus a cover page, be submitted in English, and not have been previously presented in a public forum or published [1]. A maximum of three co-authors is allowed for a paper. An author can participate in only one paper.

To be eligible to compete, authors (and co-authors) must:

• Be under the age of 35 on December 15, 2015; and
• Be employed [2] by an official statistical agency [3] on December 15, 2015.

The author or co-authors of the best paper will be awarded:

• A cash prize valued at €1,500 (divided among co-authors if applicable);
• An opportunity to present the paper at a session at the 2016 IAOS Conference, with airfare and hotel accommodation provided (for only one author in situations of co-authorship);
• Two years of IAOS membership; and
• A certificate of award from the IAOS acknowledging success in this competition

Prizes for those in second and third place will consist of:

• 2^nd Place - A cash prize valued at €1000, two years of IAOS membership, and a certificate;
• 3^rd Place - A cash prize valued at €500, two years of IAOS membership, and a certificate.

In addition, the prize-winning papers will be submitted for publication in the Statistical Journal of the IAOS.

See the Guidelines for Papers at http://isi.cbs.nl/IAOS/YoungStatisticians/2016PrizeYoungStatisticiansTechnicalGuidelines.htm for more details on the requirements for papers to be submitted for the 2016 competition.

Entrants must also complete and attach a copy of the YSP2016_Submission template available at http://isi.cbs.nl/IAOS/YoungStatisticians/2016PrizeYoungStatisticiansTemplate.htm

Please submit papers and completed template to: ysp.2016.iaos@ons.gsi.gov.uk before 11:59 pm on 15 December 2015. You may submit any questions you have about the competition to the same e-mail address.

For more information, please visit: http://isi.cbs.nl/IAOS/YoungStatisticians/2016PrizeYoungStatisticiansAnnouncement.htm

[1] A paper that has only been presented at a seminar of the employing agency is eligible if other requirements are met.

[2] Full-time, part-time, or contractual employees are eligible and an employee of a statistical agency who also teaches or studies on a part-time basis is eligible. Professional consultants or members of the teaching profession carrying out a contract with a statistical agency are not eligible.

[3] A national or international statistical agency, the statistics department of a Central Bank or the statistics department of a ministry or regional or local government in a decentralized National Statistical System.