Call for „Alps-Adriatic Scientific Award“

General information

The Alps-Adriatic Rectors’ Conference (AARC) is a network of over 40 universities from the Alps-Adriatic region, which also includes the Western Balkans since 2011. The main goal of AARC is to promote transnational dialogue and cross-border cooperation in the fields of university education and scientific research between Higher Education Institutions across the region. Further, it focuses on transdisciplinary cooperation with different partners in the spheres of culture, industry, arts, business and public institutions.

In order to encourage young scientists of the Alps-Adriatic region to do research crucial to the region itself, the AARC is proud to announce the first Call for Applications for the newly established Alps-Adriatic Scientific Award.

Target Group

Students, graduates and PhD graduates from institutions in the Alps-Adriatic region*

• who have written a scientific thesis focusing on the Alps-Adriatic region’s issues.
• whose thesis was completed between 1 January 2019 and 31 December 2021 (date of final grading).

Theses with the lowest passing/positive grade, as well as theses that did not pass the grading evaluation, will not be considered for the Award.

Award information

• PhD dissertation (1 Award, endowed with 700,- Euro)
• Diploma/Master’s thesis (2 Awards, endowed with 400,- Euro each)

The topic of the scientific thesis shall focus on different EU or European issues, while at the same time being strongly related to the Alps-Adriatic Region as defined in the Statutes of the AARC. The range of topics admitted may combine various academic disciplines, e.g. by addressing rural development, regional policy, linguistic and cultural diversity, arts, economic, political and legal issues, health and wellbeing, living together in the Alps-Adriatic region or similar as defined with reference to the Sustainable Development Goals of the UN*. Theses from all disciplines as clustered within the ERC** and in all languages of the AARC (i.e. Albanian, Bosnian, Croatian, German, Hungarian, Italian, Serbian, Slovene and English as lingua franca) may be submitted.

Awarding Authority

Alps-Adriatic Rectors’ Conference (AARC)

Closing Date for Applications

30 November 2022

Late or incomplete submissions will not be considered by the Award Committee.

Application Procedure

Exclusively online.

The following documents have to be uploaded following the online registration:

• Curriculum Vitae of applicant (in English) 
• Complete scientific thesis (copy of original)
• Executive summary of scientific thesis in English (not to exceed 5 pages)
• Evaluation of thesis by supervisor at the respective university (in English)
• Letter of support signed by the supervisor (in English)

Selection Procedure

The selection procedure consists of the following stages:

• Examination of the formal requirements
• Assessment and evaluation of the application by the Award Committee and (external) reviewers according to: Thematic reference with regard to the Alps-Adriatic region and Scientific Quality
• Final decision by the Award Committee

Please note: The Award Committee's decision is final. The principle of competition applies to all Awards, i.e. there is no legal entitlement to an Award even if all formal application requirements are met. Legal remedy is excluded.

Further information

Abstracts of the awarded theses will be published on the AARC website together with a short interview/statement of the authors. It is intended to present the executive summaries of the awarded theses in a scientific publication after 3 years. The awarded candidates will be informed by the AARC Permanent Secretariat in April 2023 via email after the decision of the Award Committee. The winners will be invited to register for participation in the official Award Ceremony taking place in the second half of May 2023.

Contact Information

AARC Permanent Secretariat (aarc.secretariat [at] aau.at)

Find out more

Visit AARC website for more information.