The Borealis Student Innovation Award recognises the two most innovative research papers

Borealis, a leading provider of innovative, value creating plastics solutions, has launched the Borealis Student Innovation Award 2009. The Award sets out to recognise the two most innovative research papers on polyolefins, olefins or melamine to engage young people in providing value for society.

There will be two separate awards, one for a master’s degree and one for a doctorate degree graduate. They consist of the actual award and a certificate each. In addition, there will be a sum of EUR 5,000 for the doctorate degree graduate and one of EUR 3,000 for the master’s degree graduate winner.

The Borealis Student Innovation Award is open to graduates anywhere in the world in the fields of chemistry, polymers or applications with a particular focus on polyolefins, olefins or melamine. Their master’s or doctoral thesis should not be more than two years old and must be finalised by the end of October 2009.  Final date for submissions is November 27, 2009. A jury composed of independent academics and Borealis representatives will assess the incoming abstracts and select the winners. The awardees will be invited to present their theses during the Borealis Innovation Day event, which will take place in January 2010.

Borealis ran a limited pilot programme during 2008, which proved to be successful with over 200 applications and has led to the introduction of the full award scheme in 2009. One of the 2008 awardees now works for Borealis.

Introducing the Borealis Student Innovation Award 2009, Christian Paulik, Manager for External Research and Funding at Borealis said: “I am proud and pleased to introduce this new global award programme. Our strategy is ‘Value Creation through Innovation’ - and innovation is at the heart of everything we do: our products are leading edge, the processes are state-of-the art and our solutions represent step changes in their industries. We pursue our vision of a world where our products help to make a difference. Knowledge is an integral part of the future – and it is for this reason that we have decided to recognise outstanding contributions to innovation through this award scheme.”

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For further information please contact:

Kerstin Meckler, Borealis Head of Communications, 
Tel. +43 1 22 400 389
kerstin.meckler@borealisgroup.com