Research Prize in Public Interest Communications

The College awards three prizes for research that provides insights that:

1. Inform aspects of social change campaigns to drive belief or behavior change
2. Builds understanding of narrative as a strategy for change
3. Can help practitioners overcome pressing communications challenges, i.e. misinformation, polarization, movement building, etc.
4. Support the work of social and environmental movements
5. Contributes to understanding of the Public Interest Communications as a unique discipline
6. Offers insight that can improve the effectiveness of communications practice, from how the human mind experiences and prefers information, and forms judgments and beliefs, to what motivates people to take action or change their behavior.
7. Details a specific public interest communications campaign, including analysis of the reasons for its success or failure
8. Explores evaluative measures

Research may come from any discipline and will be judged by its relevance for use in driving social change through communication. Work from previous entrants has come from diverse disciplines, including public health, communication, sociology, social psychology, neuroscience and political science, though future entires are by no means limited to those disciplines.

A review board made up of academic scholars and public interest communications practitioners will review entries and vote for the top three papers based on the following criteria:

1. Sophistication, originality and rigor of research methodology
2. Relevance of the research findings to the study and practice of public interest communications
3. Contribution to the understanding of public interest communications as a unique form of communications

• Others (see text field entitled "Additional Eligibility Criteria" for clarification)