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  • Rainbow Clouds

    Refraction and diffraction of light through ice crystals in the clouds

  • Philippa On The Ice

    Philippa On The Ice Philippa Werry at an Antarctic research camp 2016

New Zealand Science Teacher

Science Education & Society

PhD students have opportunity to win $5k

Entries for the IGNITE competition are open now.

fernAre you a PhD student on an innovative quest to change the world?

You could be in line to win $5,000.

The AMP IGNITE competition awards a PhD student $5,000 to help further their research.

Entries open on 13 April and close on 8 May, with finalists pitching their research, in just two and a half minutes, to a panel of judges in an entertaining performance evening on 8 June. The finalists will receive mentoring and coaching that will help them pitch ideas using storytelling, dance, or music: the sky is the limit.

In 2014, Auckland University student Emily Hargrave-Thomas won the inaugural AMP IGNITE competition, winning $5,000 to help further her research project into osteoarthritis disease development so it can be detected before patients visit their doctor with joint pain.

In the same year, Massey University student Kayleigh Evans won $1,000 in the ‘people’s prize’, chosen by the audience. Kayleigh’s research focused on controlling the reproduction of cancer cells.

AMP human resources general manager Shaun Philp says financial help is a way his company can make a difference in the studies of PhD students, but the structure of the competition can be beneficial to applicants too.

“We ask them to ‘translate’ their complex research into everyday language and pitch their project in an entertaining way to our panel of local and international judges.  Often having the skills to think creatively and deliver an engaging proposal is the key to achieving additional funding further down the track, so we see this experience as an opportunity that can set them up in the years to come,” he says.

More information about the competition can be found here.

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