Fundamental Academic Values Award
The German Academic Exchange Service (DAAD) presents the “Fundamental Academic Values Award” to early career scientists. The award is funded by the German Federal Ministry of Education and Research (BMBF). By awarding this prize for research publications, the DAAD aims to contribute to the advocacy of fundamental academic values.
Fundamental Academic Values continue to be at the centre of higher education policy debates in the European Higher Education Area (EHEA), particularly against the backdrop of declining developments in individual countries. In the Communiqué of the 2024 Bologna Ministerial Conference in Tirana, the ministers reaffirmed the relevance of the shared fundamental values as a necessary prerequisite for the development of science and research.
In addition, six fundamental academic values were defined, with all member states committing to actively protect these:
- academic freedom;
- academic integrity;
- institutional autonomy;
- participation of students and staff in higher education governance;
- public responsibility for higher education; and
- public responsibility of higher education.
The DAAD strongly supports the promotion and protection of these common European fundamental values. Since 2022, these measures have also included the presentation of the "Fundamental Academic Values Award" within the framework of the DAAD project “bologna hub”. It is aimed at early career scientists of all academic fields, who have made an outstanding scientific contribution towards the preservation and advocacy of fundamental academic values in the European Higher Education Area (EHEA).
The primary selection criteria are the quality and relevance of the candidates' academic achievements. The three awardees are selected by an international jury of academics with expertise in the field of fundamental academic values. The Fundamental Academic Values Award is endowed with prize money of 7,000, 6,000 or 5,000 euros, depending on the ranking.
The winners of the “Fundamental Academic Values Award” 2024 were Prof Dr Daniela Craciun (University of Twente, Netherlands, 1st place), Dr Lars Lott (Friedrich-Alexander-Universität Erlangen-Nürnberg, 2nd place) and Fernando Romani Sales (University of São Paulo, Brazil, 3rd place). The awards were presented by Stephan Ertner, State Secretary at the BMBF, and Michael Harms, Deputy Secretary General of the DAAD, who delivered their laudatory speeches at the closing event of the BMBF Science Year ‘Freedom’ on 10 December 2024 in Berlin. Further information on the three award winners can be found in the DAAD press release “DAAD honours commitment to academic values” as well as in the DAAD Journal article "Fundamental Academic Values Award 2024".
In 2022, the “Fundamental Academic Values Award” was awarded to Dr Janika Spannagel (Freie Universität Berlin, Germany, 1st place), Dr Elizaveta Potapova (Public Policy and Management Institute, Lithuania, 2nd place) and Dr Milica Popović (Central European University, Austria, 3rd place), who had been selected from 55 applications. They were invited to present their paper at the peer learning activity: “Academic freedom and integrity” in Berlin in March 2023. The award ceremony was held at the Scholarship Holder Meeting in Berlin in June 2023 in a festive setting. Further information on the awardees can be found in the press release “International Prize for Fundamental Academic Values awarded for the first time“ of 29 November 2022 and in the DAADeuroletter article “A Clear Signal for Democratic Societies“.
Further Information:
Aktivitäten zu Grundwerten im Europäischen Hochschulraum (in German only)
