SEISO Award

The competition is open to:

• individual students or teams of up to six students
• undergraduate and postgraduate students
• full-time and part-time students
• students based anywhere in the world
• students studying chemical engineering or other subjects.

Membership requirement: at least one person named on the entry must be an IChemE member and must provide their membership number on the submission form. Student membership is free. Students taking a postgraduate qualification in a chemical engineering-related subject, including a PhD, EngD, MPhil or taught Master’s degree, may also be eligible for free IChemE membership. Find out about IChemE student membership.

Your entry must contain two connected parts:

1. A written paper: Describe a major accident in the style of a Loss Prevention Bulletin paper. The typical structure is: introduction; description of the event; investigation and findings; lessons learned; conclusion; and references.
2. A creative communication: Present the lessons from the same incident through a novel format. This could be a graphic, animation, video, podcast, artwork or another original approach.

Previous entries have used interactive training tools, pop-up books, artwork, posters, podcasts and music. Choose a format that helps your audience understand and remember the process safety lessons.

Follow these steps to prepare and submit your application:

1. Check your eligibility: Confirm that every entrant is a student, your team has no more than six members and at least one entrant is an IChemE member.
2. Choose a major accident: Select the incident that your entry will describe and analyse.
3. Prepare the written paper: Use the typical Loss Prevention Bulletin structure and reference Loss Prevention Bulletin material where relevant to your entry.
4. Create the communication element: Develop an original way to communicate the lessons from the incident covered in your paper.
5. Check the judging criteria and terms: Make sure your entry is accurate, original, suitable for publication and compliant with the requirements on copyright, image consent and AI use.
6. Register with Oxford Abstracts: Create an Oxford Abstracts account if you do not already have one.
7. Upload and submit your entry: Submit all required material through Oxford Abstracts by Friday 14 May 2027, 23:59 BST. Late entries will not be reviewed.

• £750 prize money
• Presentation of the award at the Hazards Process Safety Conference
• Free entry to the Hazards Process Safety Conference
• Up to £250 towards travel expenses to attend the conference

Entries that the judges consider to be of a satisfactory standard will also be considered for publication in Loss Prevention Bulletin. Explore Loss Prevention Bulletin.

Judges will assess:

• accuracy
• quality and appeal
• engagement and impact
• novelty and inventiveness
• suitability for publication on the Loss Prevention Bulletin website
• use of Loss Prevention Bulletin as reference material
• teamwork, with cross-disciplinary teams encouraged.

• At least one entrant must be an IChemE member and must provide their membership number on the submission form.
• Each individual or group may submit only one entry.
• Teams may include no more than six people, and every team member must be a student.
• All entries must be uploaded and submitted through Oxford Abstracts by Friday 14 May 2027, 23:59 BST. Entries received after the deadline will not be reviewed.
• Entries will be assessed against the published judging criteria.
• Entrants must not infringe copyright legislation. Only include images that you have permission to use.
• If your entry includes photographs of people, you must obtain written consent to use the images. You will be asked to confirm photo consent during the Oxford Abstracts submission process.
• All submitted work must be the original work of the person or people entering the competition.
• Data submitted for the award will be used in accordance with IChemE’s data protection and privacy policies.

Read IChemE’s legal, data protection and privacy information.

• You may use AI tools to support translation, spelling, grammar and restructuring of text.
• You remain responsible for ensuring that all submitted content is original, accurate and reflects your own experience.
• AI must not be used to produce generic, inaccurate or non-personalised content. Inappropriate use may make an application inadmissible and unethical use may trigger IChemE disciplinary procedures.
• You must disclose whether AI was used in preparing any part of your application.
• AI may be used as an essential part of a project methodology, including research, analysis or digital modelling, provided you clearly identify where it was used and explain its role.
• You remain responsible for ensuring that any use of AI is appropriate, transparent and accurately represented in your submission.

Previous winning work shows the range of incidents and formats students can explore:

• 2026: A Al Badri, A Al-Farsi and D Allihyani. Popcorn polymer - the forgotten threat that keeps coming back
• 2025: P D Dube. Boksburg LPG tanker blast - a detailed analysis of the tragic chain of events and safety insights
• 2022: Joseph Carver, Sophie Manton, Steven Isaac, Jake Bull and Alana Jones. Flixborough - looking forward
• 2021: Lauren Averill, Brady Durkin, Michael Chu, Usaamah Ougradar, Alexander Reeves and the University of Bradford (Haverill) Team. Deepwater Horizon disaster
• 2020: Kalokson Gurung, Laya Jayadeep, Janusz Siwek, Satyam Vora and David Zhou. Texas City Refinery explosion - safety out of focus
• 2019: Yeuan Jer Choong, Chee Kean Looi, Jing Han Siow and Tze Lin Kok. Bhopal gas tragedy - the scar of process safety

Yes. Undergraduate students can enter individually or in a team of up to six students.

Yes. The competition is open to postgraduate students, including eligible students studying full time or part time.

No. Students studying chemical engineering or other subjects can enter.

Yes. Students based anywhere in the world are eligible.

At least one entrant must be an IChemE member and provide their membership number on the application form. Student membership is free.

Your entry must include a paper describing a major accident and its lessons, plus a novel method of communicating those lessons.

Register for an Oxford Abstracts account if needed, then upload and submit your entry using the online submission form.

Friday 14 May 2027, 23:59 BST. Late entries will not be reviewed.