Quarry awards return with new category
The fourth edition of HeidelbergCement’s biennial biodiversity research competition, the Quarry Life Award, was launched in May.
The 2018 competition, which is being run in 23 countries across the globe, offers academics and students from universities and further education institutions the chance to win up to £27,000 by finding new ideas for the conservation and promotion of biodiversity in quarries.
And, for the first time, it includes a category for community projects that educate local people about biodiversity in quarries or help the quarry to better connect with its neighbours. This new community stream is open to everyone – individuals, students, schools and community groups – and includes a student class project.
The research stream focuses on scientific projects that increase knowledge of mining ecology and lead to improved biodiversity, landscape, or water management. It is aimed principally at academics, scientists and research groups. The categories cover biodiversity management, habitat and species research and a section called “Beyond quarry borders”.
Eight Heidelberg Materials sites are participating in the 2018 contest – the rock quarries at Forest Wood, Vale of Glamorgan, Coldstones and Horton in North Yorkshire and Chipping Sodbury in South Gloucestershire, the cement limestone quarry at Ketton in Rutland and the sand and gravel quarries at Barton-under-Needwood, Staffordshire, Needingworth, Cambridgeshire and Ripon, North Yorkshire.
The deadline for submitting proposals is November 20. A panel of judges will then select six projects for the research phase to be carried out between January and September next year. The UK winners will share a prize fund of £12,000 and go forward to the international competition with a chance to scoop the top prize of £27,000.
Martin Crow, Heidelberg Materials’s senior sustainability manager, said: “Our aim is to encourage projects which can support or enhance the work we are already doing to improve biodiversity and the quality of restoration at our sites.
“The award has increased dialogue with the academic community and NGOs which, in turn, is helping to inform the development of biodiversity action plans at all our sites.” Almost 400 project proposals from 22 countries were submitted for the 2016 award, with 95 projects selected for the research phase. To find out more, visit the Quarry Life Award website www.quarrylifeaward.com