Augmenting Writing Skills For Articulating Research, AWSAR

Objectives:

• AWSAR scheme is an initiative to spread the Indian research stories to ordinary people in an easy-to-understand and exciting format.
• The AWSAR  initiative tries to cover the gap between ordinary people and the research by communicating research while using the potentiality of  Post-Doctoral Fellows and Ph.D. scholars.
• This scheme encourages the youth pursuing Ph.D. and  Post-Doctoral Fellows to write an article based on their research work during the tenure of their research.
• This initiative recognizes the output of the researchers on particular aspects like nature, physics, mathematics, applied science, technology, engineering, and multi-disciplinary sciences.

Eligibility:

• Post-Doctoral Fellows from a recognized university or  R&D (Research and Technology) and students pursuing a Ph.D. in Science and Technology can send articles for the AWSAR scheme.
• Students applying for this scheme should be Indian.
• A student can send their article only once a year. If they did not meet their eligibility criteria, they could re-send their article for the following year.
• If a student is awarded an article in the previous year, they can not send the article for the same category for the following year.

Scheme Highlights:

• The AWSAR scheme was launched in 2018 and was supported by the National Council for Science and Technology Communication (NCSTC) Division and the Department of Science and Technology.
• Under this scheme, training and workshops are conducted for Early Career Researchers in popular science writing articles.
• The top articles sent by students were awarded every year on the National Science Day, which is February 28^th, at the AWSAR award function.
• This scheme helps develop, create, and strengthen the Scientific temper by writing science articles.
• For any further updates or information about the scheme, one can follow the instructions on the website: https://awsar-dst.in/. 

Workshops conducted under AWSAR scheme:

Workshops are conducted under the AWSAR initiative at different country locations to develop the required skills for researchers. A group of identified experts organizes these workshops yearly basis where they pour their ideas and suggest tips to improve good writing skills to write a good research article. These workshops cover the following points:

• They provide tips for original writing and leave a hook to grab the reader’s attention.
• They understand the basic rules of grammar, punctuation, style, and flow of words and sentences.
• They help the students learn to use correct words, sentences, and language.
• Students get to learn to write an article properly
• These workshops emphasize writing effectively to make it as straightforward as possible, using jargon to explain the meaning transparently.

Award categories under AWSAR:

Awards allocated to Ph.D. scholars:

• cash prize of Rupees Ten Thousand and  Certificate of Appreciation will be awarded to the top 100 articles.
• Cash prize of Rupees One Lakh is awarded first prize for the top article.
• Cash prize of Rupees Fifty Thousand is awarded to the Second best article.
• Cash prize of Rupees Twenty Five Thousand is awarded to the Third best article.

Awards allocated to Post-Doctoral Fellows(PDF)

• Cash prize of Rupees Ten Thousand and a Certificate of Appreciation will be awarded to the top 20 articles. 
• Cash prize of Rupees One Lakh will be awarded for one Outstanding story.

All the awardees will get an opportunity to attend a Science film training workshop conducted by Vigyan Prasar.

Guidelines for submitting article under AWSAR Scheme:

• The Ph.D. students and PDFs should be from government-approved institutions.
• The complete research story in the article should be a simple form that the general audience can understand, and it should not contain complex terms or equations.
• The applicant should send a declaration form that declares that this article is original as it has not been published previously anywhere else.
• The article is accepted if it contains at least 1000 to 1500 words.
• The applicant should mention their research title, affiliation, name, and contact details on the submitted article.
• The articles should be submitted online on the AWSAR portal by the applicant.

Selection criteria for awarding Articles:

A panel of experts, including science communicators, subject experts, media persons, and practitioners constituted by the DST, will be evaluating these science articles.

The following criteria will be followed for judging and selecting the top articles received from the Ph.D. scholars and PDFs:

• The articles are judged based on clarity, fairness, accuracy, resourcefulness, and insightfulness.
• The following questions should be answered from the article:

1. Why does this research matter?
2. Why is this article important?
3. Does this article create interest in the reader?
4. Does this article explain the core reason for the research?

The article should review the research done by the individual researcher. Still, it should not be a general review on a particular area, and it can be of novel knowledge generated from a part of the research. This article should not be published on other websites and should be written to reach the general audience.