Evaluation of a Commercial Equipment Award Program

In 2012, Aquatec launched an equipment award scheme for postgraduate students and early career scientists. Successful recipients with limited budgets gain free access to high quality subsea instrumentation for a laboratory or field campaign of up to three months, plus a travel grant to allow them to present their work at a conference. So far there have been 11 successful awardees who have applied from or deployed instruments in 13 countries spanning five continents, in flumes, lakes, rivers, and coastal seas.

In this paper, we present an overview of the most successful award projects. We also evaluate the impact of the scheme on the award recipients’ chosen project work and how it influenced their future career. The evaluation draws on analysis of the recipient study reports and the use of questionnaires and interviews.

The scheme has also suffered the occasional setback. We attempt to identify some of the potential pitfalls of such a program, and highlight the key factors that lead not only to the best student experience, but also a positive outcome for the awarding company.