Akçansa, the leader construction materials company of Turkey, is organizing a “Biodiversity Project Contest“, which is organized by its affiliate HeidelbergCement for long years in the countries that it operates in and aiming to increase the biological values of the mine sites, for the first time in Turkey.

With the contest organized for the students studying in Departments of Molecular Biology and Genetics, Biology and Ecology departments, as well as the Faculty of Agriculture of the universities, it\\\’s aimed to generate projects for increasing the biological value of the mine sites and to increase the awareness of the students on this matter.

Applications for the contest, inviting the university students to contribute to environment, natural life and sustainable future, continue until March 1 2014 Friday.

Applications for the Biodiversity Project Contest with the theme “Increase biodiversity, add value to natural life“ organized for the first time in Turkey by Akçansa, the leader construction materials producer of Turkey, have started. Deadline for the applications to the contest organized for the students studying in Departments of Molecular Biology and Genetics, Biology and Ecology departments, as well as the Faculty of Agriculture of the universities is March 1 Friday.

“Quarry Life Award” is an international science and education contest organized for increasing the biodiversity at the mine sites. We can summarize its aim as reclamation of lands and natural wild life after the mining activities back to the nature through creative, different and innovative projects to be generated by the university students and researchers, as well as increasing and developing the biodiversity in these areas.

QLA contest is organized biennially as it is both a national and international biodiversity project contest. The first one was held in 2011 and more than 300 projects representing 18 countries applied to the contest. The awards were presented to the winners with a ceremony held at Heidelberg, Germany in 2012.

All university students interested in nature, environment, biodiversity, ecology and biology can attend to this contest either alone or as a team. The applications can be made electronically on www.quarrylifeawards.com until March 1, 2013.

For the contest, we determined two raw material areas, one in Istanbul and one in Çanakkale where the production activities still continue. The contestants will submit their project proposals to be prepared until March 1, 2014 related to these areas for the pre-screening of the National Jury, and the selected proposals will be prepared as a final project until September 1, 2014. The projects will be evaluated according to the criteria based on the value they add to the nature or the society such as feasibility, raising public awareness, and participation of stakeholders.

A jury consisted of specialists and authorities from the public organizations and institutions, universities, and NGOs will carry out the evaluations for the national contest.

The great prize is € 30.000

All projects accepted to the Biodiversity Project Contest will compete for both national and international awards. For the national contest, the money prizes will be € 5.000 for the winning project, € 3.000 for the second project, and € 1.500 for the third project.

Contestants succeeding in the international area will receive a money prize of € 10.000. In addition to this, the great prize of € 30.000 will be granted to the best general project.

Terms and conditions for participation to the Akçansa Biodiversity Project Contest:

o    The most important condition for the contest organized for the undergraduate students studying in the Departments of Molecular Biology and Genetics, Biology and Ecology, as well as the Faculty of Agriculture is to submit a creative project, which is not carried out before and used for any other contest before…
o    Participants are required to apply individually or as a team. An individual is only entitled for selecting one National Contest, and he/she can participate to the contest individually or as a team member.
o    Participants are not allowed participating to two contests.
o    Each participant shall declare that their Quarry belongs to a certain National Contest. On the other hand, each project proposal must be prepared for belonging to one Quarry in only one national contest.
o    Participants, who want to participate to the international contest, must submit their project proposals containing the best five projects of the national contest in English language.

Students can get more information about application and submitting a project from www.quarrylifeaward.com