Early Career Award | SCB Europe Region

Early Career Conservation Award

The Society for Conservation Biology is dedicated to facilitating, promoting, and advancing the scientific study and conservation of biological diversity. Recognizing the importance of dedicated individuals in achieving this, SCB Europe grants one Early Career Conservation Award annually to provide recognition for an early career conservationist to promote their work as exemplary conservation practice, whether this be through research, practical intervention, policy work and/or education and outreach.

Eligibility

Candidates must be early career conservation professionals, defined as within 6 years of the highest achieved full-time education (whether this be school, undergraduate or postgraduate) attained prior to working as a conservation professional. Nominees must have been based in Europe during (part of) their career OR must have included European conservation in their work.

The awardee will be announced at the next European Congress of Conservation Biology (ECCB). The award includes a free registration fee to enable the awardee to attend ECCB and they will be encouraged to attend to receive their award.

We particularly encourage nominations for conservation scientists and practitioners from underrepresented groups. Your application should be submitted in English, but the quality of your English will not affect your application. Applications can be made through self-nomination or someone else can nominate you.

Call for Nominations 2026

Nominations due by 30 March

Nomination submissions for SCB Europe Early Career Conservation Award 2026 are currently open through 30 March 2026. While SCB membership is not mandatory for nominees, it is encouraged and valued.

This award will be presented at the European Congress of Conservation Biology, taking place in Leiden, the Netherlands from 6 - 10 July 2026. The award includes a honorarium of 500 euro and a free registration fee to enable the awardee to attend ECCB and they are encouraged to attend to receive their award.

Criteria for selection:
To apply, you must be able to show evidence of the candidate’s achievement in conservation science and practice. This can be through research and its application to practical conservation problems, practical interventions, policy work and/or education.

How to Apply
To apply complete the SCB 2026 Group Service Awards Nomination Form by 30 March 2026.

Questions? If you have immediate questions or a general question about SCB Awards, please email awards@conbio.org. Otherwise, send an email to SCB Europe directly.

Early Career Award Winners 2025

This year, the Selection Committee was faced with an exceptional pool of candidates, and two individuals stood out equally for their outstanding accomplishments. In recognition of this, the Selection Committee decided to present the award to both candidates independently and in full, with each of them receiving the award in their own right.

The 2025 Early Career Conservation Award recipients are Dr Volen Arkumarev, Bulgarian Society for the Protection of Birds (BSPB) / BirdLife Bulgaria and Dr Hanna Pettersson, University of York UK.

Dr Hanna Pettersson

is an emerging expert in human-wildlife interactions, with a focus on the preconditions that enable coexistence. She serves on a wolf conflict mediation panel in Spain and is an external advisor to an EU Horizon project on co-creating coexistence. At the Centre for Anthropocene Biodiversity, University of York, her current project builds on her previous work, expanding it to explore an Incentive Payment Scheme in northern Sweden. Her project adopts a transdisciplinary approach to evaluate the implementation of a new monitoring method for wolverines, its effect on the payment scheme, and its role in promoting trust and justice in carnivore management. She aims to combine her case studies in wildlife management with those on conflicts and just transitions in other systems, and to contribute to ongoing efforts by IPBES, the IUCN and others to embed social science into the development of coexistence programmes.

SCB Europe is delighted to present the 2025 Early Career Conservation Award to Dr Hanna Pettersson, the leading early-career researcher in the field of human–carnivore coexistence and the design of effective coexistence programmes.

Dr Volen Arkumarev

is a Bulgarian conservation biologist with over 16 years of experience in raptor research and conservation. He holds a PhD on the spatial ecology of Griffon Vultures and currently serves as Project Manager of the LIFE for Falcons project and Coordinator of the Egyptian Vulture restocking program in Bulgaria. He is a member of the IUCN Vulture Specialist Group and, since 2024, Editor-in-Chief of its journal Vulture News. As Flyway Conservation Officer under the Egyptian Vulture New LIFE project, he led the development of a methodology that mapped mortality risks across three continents. He also pioneered the evaluation of restocking methods (hacking, fostering, delayed release) for Egyptian Vultures in the Balkans, with findings now applied in practice and shared internationally through training programs he led. Volen’s conservation work is a brilliant example on how to integrate science, policy, and practice, grounded in innovation, evidence, and collaboration.

SCB Europe is delighted to present the 2025 Early Career Conservation Award to Dr Volen Arkumarev for his extraordinary contributions to raptor conservation through scientific innovation, international collaboration, and leadership in restoring endangered species across Europe, the Middle East, and Africa.