GRANTS
The Loretta Makasiar Sicat Prize
for the Social Sciences
The Loretta Makasiar Sicat Prize for the Social Sciences (LMS Prize) seeks to promote the social sciences and honor the legacy and contribution of Dr. Loretta Makasiar Sicat for making the Philippine Social Science Council (PSSC) the leading institution in the promotion of the social sciences and one of the country’s longest-running and financially viable non-profit organizations.
The LMS Prize is an attractive and sufficiently rewarding monetary award for excellence in research in social science by Filipino graduate students. The LMS Prize awards a cash prize of US$5,000.00 for the chosen best thesis or dissertation.
To be eligible for the LMS Prize award, a nominee must have graduated from a Philippine college or university and completed the MA thesis or Ph.D. dissertation on the social sciences in the last two academic years of the award year. Once an MA thesis or Ph.D. dissertation has been submitted, it cannot be submitted for the next call for nomination.
Who is LORETTA MAKASIAR SICAT?
Dr. Loretta Makasiar Sicat served as the PSSC Executive Director from 1977 to 1984. Before she became the Executive Director, she was a member of the Executive Board from 1973 until 1976 when she was elected as the Chairperson of the Board of Trustees.
Dr. Sicat was instrumental in making PSSC have its own building — the Philippine Social Science Center.
The LMS Prize for best thesis or dissertation
- The top prize winner will receive a US$ 5,000.00 cash prize to be given in two tranches:
- US$ 3,000.00 during the awarding ceremony, and
- US$ 2,000.00 after the thesis or dissertation has been converted into an article version and officially published,* locally or internationally, within 12 months after receiving the award.
- The other two finalists will receive US$ 500.00 each during the awarding ceremony.
- PSSC will launch a Call for Nominations for the LMS Prize in August of every year.
- College Deans (or the head of the equivalent academic unit) and Department Chairs will nominate a thesis or dissertation to the LMS Prize. College Deans can only select one thesis or dissertation for the LMS Prize. However, for Colleges that cover different disciplines under their jurisdiction, Department Chairs may also submit a nomination provided that there is only one nominee from each distinct social science department.
- The nominator must submit the following documents in electronic form:
- LMS Prize Nominee’s Information Sheet (download here);
- LMS Prize Nomination Form (download here);
- Three-page CV of the nominee; and
- A five-page extended abstract* of the MA thesis or Ph.D. dissertation, containing the rationale, research problem, theoretical framework, literature review, methodology, summary of results and conclusion.
- Deadline for submission of documents is SEPTEMBER 30.
- For inquiries and clarifications, please email the LMS Prize Secretariat at grants@pssc.org.ph
* The 5-page extended abstract should be written in an A4 size sheet, double-spaced, and using Calibri as font (size 12).
- PSSC constitutes a Selection Committee from the roster of recognized scholars of its member-organizations. The composition of the committee members will depend on the number of nominations received.
- The Selection Committee evaluates the submitted nominations and selects the top five semi-finalists.
- The College Deans or Department Chairs of the five semi-finalists will be informed and asked to submit three (3) printed copies and an electronic copy of the full version of the MA thesis or Ph.D. dissertation.
- PSSC forms a three-member Review Panel from the roster of recognized PSSC scholars to review the MA thesis or Ph.D. dissertation of the five semi-finalists. The composition of the Review Panel will be based on the related disciplines of the five semi-finalists.
- The Review Panel will select the top three finalists based on the following criteria:
- The research’s relevance to and contribution to new knowledge in the social sciences;
- Clarity of research problem;
- Contextualized research problem within existing literature and theoretical framework/s;
- Appropriateness and rigor of methodology;
- Well-founded conclusions, and
- Overall presentation.
- The announcement of winners and awarding ceremony will be in APRIL of the following year.
The LMS Prize winner will deliver a scientific lecture on the winning thesis or dissertation during the awarding ceremonies.
The winner will also be requested to prepare a short article based on the winning piece for a feature in the PSSC website and newsletter.
Once published, the winner must provide PSSC five copies of the article’s publication journal.
The winner must acknowledge the LMS Prize in the journal article and other venues.
