The annual Searle Award for Creativity, which was launched last year by Research, Development and Commercial Services, is open for applications once again. Named in honour of one of our most illustrious alumni and one of the UK's greatest illustrators, Ronald Searle started the award with a donation following his acceptance of an Honorary Degree last year.

The award, which aims to celebrate the high quality of work produced within the Cambridge School of Art across a wide variety of mediums, offers a £3,000 cash prize to the winner and two prizes of £500 to highly commended artists. The winner also receives a beautiful bronze statue of Searle's 'winged pen'. Open to all students within the art school, in any year, submissions are asked to respond to a chosen theme.

Last year's theme was 'Petersfield', an area of Cambridge which encompasses both the place of Searle's birth, and where he lived as a young artist attending Cambridge School of Art. This year, to honour the large body of work Searle did as a Japanese prisoner of war, the theme is 'war and conflict'. Searle's haunting images of WW2 combine with more contemporary conflicts.

The winner of the Searle Award for Creativity 2008 was BA (Hons) Illustration student, Jennifer Smith (21) who was praised for her 'inventive, personal, narrative response' which was described as being 'lyrical and beautifully finished'. Her work was presented in the form of a book.

The deadline for submissions this year is Friday 3 April.

To enter, students must register by emailing their name, course and contact number to: searleaward@anglia.ac.uk