Call for Nominations

Keith van Rijsbergen has been a pioneer in modern information retrieval and a strong advocate for the development of formal models and theories in the field. He is also widely recognised for his mentorship of numerous researchers within the information retrieval community.

To honour his contributions, the KvR Award was established at ECIR 2024. The award encourages and recognises researchers who have made significant theoretical contributions to information retrieval - those who have developed new models, paradigms, concepts, or metrics that address foundational aspects of IR and open new ways of thinking about the discipline.

The award is presented every other year at ECIR, pending sufficient funding. The first recipient, in 2024, was Prof. Maarten de Rijke (University of Amsterdam).

ECIR 2026 will mark the second presentation of the award.

Eligibility

The KvR Award is open to all active researchers in information retrieval who have at least 10 years of experience since obtaining their PhD.

Criteria

Nominees should have a significant track record in information retrieval, particularly in using theory to advance the understanding of key aspects, problems, or applications in the field.

Nominations

Nominations should be submitted using the following form: KvR Award Nomination Form (2026)

The submission should include:

    •    Name, position, and affiliation of the nominee, and number of years since PhD;

    •    Name, position, and affiliation of the nominator;

    •    A concise supporting statement (maximum 500 words) describing the nominee's contributions to advancing theory in IR;

    •    Up to five illustrative publications that showcase the nominee's theoretical contributions.

Deadline for nominations: 15 January 2026

Prize details

The recipient of the award will receive a certificate, a cash prize of £500 plus expenses for the awardee to attend and give a special keynote at ECIR 2026.

Award Panel

For 2026, the Awarding Panel will consist of:

    •    The General Chairs of ECIR 2024,

    •    The Full Paper Track Chairs of ECIR 2026,

    •    A representative of BCS IRSG, and

    •    A representative of the School of Computing Science at the University of Glasgow, where Keith van Rijsbergen has retired.