What is the MUS Case Study Award

Who can apply?

The MUS Case Study Award is open to researchers, practitioners and students working in any development related context: including, but not restricted to, South America, the Carribean, Africa, Asia or Eastern Europe. Papers (or other forms of submission) may be submitted by joint or single authors.

What themes are eligible?

The Case Study Award is for a study on the areas of interest of the MUS Group. Case studies should be on the multiple use of water services at the local scale: emphasising the negative or positive role of combining productive uses of water at the household/village/local level alongside traditionally recognised domestic uses. Possible topics might include the role of household water supplies in gardening and urban agriculture, for livestock, and for micro-enterprises. Case studies may emphasise technical, social, political, economic or institutional issues in water development and management for multiple uses at the local scale.

What is the deadline for submission in 2006?

Case studies can be submitted at any time before 31 October 2006. The winning case study will be announced before December 2006.

How should case studies be submitted, and in what format?

Case studies should be submitted by e-mail to John Butterworth. Case studies may be submitted in English, Spanish or French. The case study may be a paper of less than 2000 words and will include:

• a brief summary in English,
• background to the case study issues and location,
• clear presentation and discussion of methods and results,
• lessons learned and recommendations for policy and practice, and
• specific recommendations for further work

Such papers should be prepared using MS-Word. Authors are encouraged to include figures and photographs. The filenames of submitted files should include the author’s surname to avoid confusion.

If you don't want to write a paper to tell your story, you may instead prefer to submit a short film, a collection of photos, or some other innovative medium. All submissions will be judged equally.

By what criteria will the submitted case studies be judged?

The case studies will be assessed by the IRC International Water and Sanitation Centre and Coordinating Partners of the MUS Group as follows:

• The subject is relevant to the areas of interest of the MUS Group
• A clear, original and convincing story is told by the author
• Concise conclusions and lessons learnt are justified by the results presented

What is the value of the AWARD and how may it be used?

The AWARD of €1000 will support further research on the best case study submitted to the MUS website. The successful applicant will be required to submit a short report within 6 months of the award, including details of how the award was spent and explaining the results of research.

Subject to availability of funds, the MUS Group will also support the successful author (only one nominated author for joint papers) to attend a meeting of the thematic group to present the case study. Meetings have normally been held in the Netherlands or the UK to date. This further award will be limited to an economy class airfare, visa costs and approved actual accommodation and subsistence expenses.

What will happen if my case study is not selected for the Award?

All case studies that are judged to be of adequate quality will be published as soon as possible on the website. The organisers may edit and summarise case studies before publication.