Research contest |
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2025 Edition
Rules
1. Participation
Eligible participants include employees, officers and coworkers of PASA member companies, university students and people working in surety, credit insurance and reinsurance fields.
2. Prize
The prize for the winner will consist of USD 5,000 (five thousand US dollars), and a round-trip air ticket (economy class), hotel accommodation (4 nights) and registration fee to attend XXXVI PASA’s General Assembly in the city of Buenos Aires, Argentina and present their paper in the academic sessions. The winner will also receive an official certificate. The award-winning paper shall become the property of PASA.
Special Mention
Likewise, the Jury may decide to grant a Special Mention, which will consist of a prize of USD 1,500 (one thousand five hundred US dollars), the award of a certificate to the author and the publication of the selected paper in the Members Only section of PASA website.
At the next General Assembly, the name, company, country of all contestants and the title of the paper will be mentioned to recognize their effort and time dedicated to preparing it.
3. Features of the presentation
Entries should be individual, original and unpublished, and address topics related to surety bond and credit insurance areas.
As a guideline, please find HERE the titles of formerly submitted papers.
4. Format
- • Language: Spanish or English.
- • Length: maximum length: 4,000 words (about 8 pages). Annexes may be added; however, the conclusions should be contained in the main body of the paper. The number of pages of such annexes should not exceed the length of the main body.
- • Additional information: an abstract (not to exceed 250 words) indicating the main aims and conclusions shall be included.
- • Presentation: In a Word file.
- • Format: Size: A4. Font: Times New Roman. Font size: 12. Margins: Left: 2.5 cm. Right: 2.5 cm. Upper: 2.5 cm. Lower: 2.5 cm. Indent: No. Paragraphs separated by one line. Line spacing: Simple (1). Text: Justified.
In addition, the author should include a virtual presentation addressed to the Jury through a short video summarizing the main points of their paper.
Important notice: In a separate file, the author will include their real personal data (name and surname, nationality, postal address, telephone number and email address) and a brief résumé. This small file will be named after the author's pen name.
5. Author
An author may submit more than one paper, using a different pen name for each of them.
6. Evaluation criteria in order of importance
- • General aspect: the originality and innovation of the work, focusing on the research task.
- • Applicability: timeliness and usefulness of the work.
- • Structure: statement and demonstration of the hypothesis, coherence, objectivity of the analysis, quality of the conclusions and use of the bibliography.
- • Preparation of the paper: organization of the text, clarity and ability to synthesize.
7. Jury
The Jury will be made up of the following persons:
- • PASA’s President
- • PASA’s First Vice President
- • PASA’s Second Vice President
- • Surety Committee: the president and one member
- • Credit Committee: the president and one member
- • Training Committee: the president and one member
- • Legal Committee: the president and one member
8. Verdict
The Jury will give its verdict as from 15 days following the contest’s closing date. The Prize may be declared void if, in the opinion of the Jury, none of the entries meets the required standard, if they are not related to the industry or if, for any reason, the identity of the author is revealed. The Jury's decision shall be final and shall be made known through PASA's Web site (www.apfpasa.ch).
9. Rights
The award-winning author shall assign any rights on the paper to PASA and shall be liable for any future claims. All profits arising from the dissemination of the award-winning papers shall be the sole property of PASA. PASA will destroy all non-winning entries.
10. Paper submission
Entries should be submitted in PDF format and the video should be recorded in MP4 format. Both files can be sent by email until March 15, 2025 inclusive, to this email address only: carlos.dupont@apfpasa.ch to preserve the identity of the authors.
The Operating Office will edit the video digitally to preserve the author’s anonymity. Contestants may send their questions or comments to this same email address.
11. Rules
PASA reserves the right to modify these Rules at any time without prior notice.