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 Bologna Ministerial Conference in Rome in November 2020, the ministers reaffirmed their "commitment to promoting and protecting our shared fundamental values across the EHEA through intensified policy dialogue and cooperation as a necessary basis for quality learning, teaching and research and for democratic societies". A further commitment to these values may be expected from the EHEA Ministerial Conference 2024 in Tirana.
The following four fundamental academic values were defined:
- academic freedom and integrity;
- institutional autonomy;
- participation of students and staff in higher education governance; and
- public responsibility for and 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.
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)