The Brian Hey prize was established by the Faculty and Institute of Actuaries in 1998. Brian Hey was a senior and respected UK actuary who worked in general insurance. His family and employer donated funds on his death to further actuarial research. The £1,500 (approximately $2,900 US) prize is available for the best paper submitted to that year's GIRO convention. A second prize of £500 may be available. The prize will only be awarded if papers of sufficient merit are received to warrant giving a prize. Prizes will be announced and presented to the authors at the GIRO meeting. The GIRO Committee will evaluate papers and will decide on any prize winner(s). Their decision is both arbitrary and final.

The main criterion for evaluation is the practical application of the paper for general insurance actuaries.

Other criteria considered are:

• Technical content
• Innovative content
• Readability
• Wider appeal

The Faculty and Institute of Actuaries has a refereed Journal, The British Actuarial Journal. However, the Brian Hey papers are presented as part of the GIRO conference papers that are not refereed. Papers submitted for the Brian Hey prize need not be rewritten following scrutiny - if they are not of an acceptable standard they will not be published. In any event, not all submitted papers may be published in the GIRO pack of conference papers.

The following have been awarded the Brian Hey Prize:

Questions regarding the submission guidelines for the Brian Hey award should be addressed to Peter Stirling at peter.stirling@actuaries.org.uk.

The deadline for submissions for 2008 was Friday 25 July.