The German Academic Exchange Service (DAAD) has presented the "Fundamental Academic Values Award" for fundamental academic values for the second time. The award honours three young researchers from Romania, Germany and Brazil for outstanding academic contributions to fundamental academic values such as academic freedom or university autonomy in the European Higher Education Area. The Federal Ministry of Education and Research (BMBF) finances the award.

"The freedom of science and research is an important pillar of our free and democratic society. We take this for granted in Europe - but it is not. The last few weeks, months and years have shown that we must protect our freedoms against populism, political influence and disinformation. This is the only way we can preserve our academic and European community of values in the long term. The Basic Values Award takes up this idea and therefore honours young scientists at the beginning of their academic career. The honour is intended to encourage them to continue to work for academic values in their professional lives. I therefore warmly congratulate this year's winners and look forward to their future contributions to academic freedom or university autonomy," said DAAD President Joybrato Mukherjee in Bonn.

The Fundamental Academic Values Award 2024 goes to Romanian Prof Dr Daniela Craciun from the University of Twente in the Netherlands (1st place), Dr Lars Lott from the University of Erlangen-Nuremberg (2nd place) and Brazilian Fernando Romani Sales from the University of Sao Paulo. (3rd place). The three young scientists will receive prize money totalling 7,000, 6,000 and 5,000 euros respectively. The award ceremony will take place as part of the closing event of this year's Year of Science "Freedom" on 10 December 2024 in Berlin.

A portrait of the award winners

With her work, Daniela Craciun has created an important basis for monitoring in order to better record compliance with fundamental academic values in the European Higher Education Area in the future. Born in Romania, she is currently Assistant Professor at the University of Twente in Enschede in the Netherlands. Lars Lott, research associate at the Institute of Political Science at Friedrich-Alexander-Universität Erlangen-Nürnberg, analyses phases of growth and decline in academic freedom in his work in a historical comparison. He comes to the conclusion that academic freedom has been declining worldwide for around a decade, both in autocracies and democracies. The Brazilian Fernando Romani Sales analyses endangered democracies in his research and shows in a cross-national comparison what effects strategies of democratic erosion can develop in the education sector.

Fundamental academic values in Europe

Fundamental academic values form the normative backbone of the European Higher Education Area (EHEA). The member states of the EHEA have agreed on six essential fundamental values: Freedom of research and teaching, integrity of science, university autonomy, participation of teachers and students in university management, social responsibility of universities and society's responsibility for universities. These values should be promoted by all member states. The DAAD supports this endeavour by awarding the Basic Values Prize as part of the "Bologna Hub" project funded by the BMBF.