Award of the RhiPla Foundation (Rettinger Prize)
Award statutes dated 16.12.2020 (with amendments dated 08 November 2022)

The Rhinology and Plastic Head and Neck Surgery Foundation (RhiPla Foundation) is a public foundation under civil law with legal capacity based in Bonn. The purpose of the RhiPla Foundation is to promote science and research, further education and training as well as information in the fields of rhinology and plastic-reconstructive and aesthetic surgery of the head, face and neck. The purpose is realised, among other things, by promoting research projects and by awarding prizes (‘Rettinger Prize’). The award, which should be endowed with € 3,000, is primarily intended to honour the personality of the award winner and highlight his or her achievements.

The foundation is endowed with basic assets; according to the statutes, these must be maintained permanently and undiminished. Only the income from the foundation's assets may be used to endow the grant.

If the earnings in a financial year are not sufficient to be able to award a grant, the awarding of the Rettinger Prize is suspended. The amount of the annual income is added to that of the next financial year.

The decision to award the prize is at the discretion of the foundation's advisory board, whose members and voting rights are regulated in the foundation's statutes.

As a rule, the Rettinger Prize is awarded annually for an outstanding scientific achievement in the fields of rhinology or plastic-reconstructive and aesthetic surgery of the head, face and neck (alternating annually), the results of which have been published in a scientific journal or as a monograph in the two volumes preceding the award year (if an online publication precedes a print publication, the date of the online publication counts).

The selection criteria include the scientific and/or practical relevance of the topic, processing and result, the originality of the topic or methodology and the quality of the publication, including the review process, in which the work has appeared.

The publication can either be submitted by the first author* or proposed by a member of the DGHNO-KHC; in addition, the Foundation Advisory Board has the right to make a direct proposal. Only members of the DGHNO-KHC may apply or be nominated. The application documents must be accompanied by a letter of motivation from the applicant, their CV and their list of publications and submitted to the Foundation Board via the office by email to info@hno.org. The submission deadline is always 1 October of each calendar year.

The Rettinger Prize is always awarded to the first author at the annual meeting of the German Society of Otorhinolaryngology, Head and Neck Surgery following the closing date for applications. Legal recourse against the decision is excluded.

* The wording includes members of all genders (m/f/d). The use of the masculine form here and in the following is solely for the sake of readability.