Austrian Prize for Development Research

Mit Datum 9.7.2025 wird der diesjährige Österreichische Preis für Entwicklungsforschung ausgeschrieben. Bewerbungen sind bis 10. September 2025 möglich. Der Preis wird vom Bundesministerium für Frauen, Wissenschaft und Forschung (BMFWF) für herausragende Leistungen im Bereich der Entwicklungsforschung vergeben. Die organisatorische Abwicklung erfolgt durch den OeAD, Agentur für Bildung und Internationalisierung. Der Preis besteht aus zwei Kategorien: einem Hauptpreis und einem Nachwuchspreis.

• Der Hauptpreis wird an eine Person vergeben, die innerhalb der letzten fünf Jahre vor der Ausschreibung einen wesentlichen Beitrag zur Entwicklungsforschung in oder im Zusammenhang mit Österreich geleistet hat. Der Hauptpreis ist mit 7.000 Euro dotiert.
• Der Nachwuchspreis würdigt eine besondere wissenschaftliche Arbeit oder Publikation im Bereich der Entwicklungsforschung. Der Nachwuchspreis ist mit 3.500 Euro dotiert.
   

The main prize is awarded every second year to a person or institution for scientifically outstanding publications, projects or initiatives. In 2023 the main prize will be awarded to a person who has made a significant contribution to development research in Austria. There will be an open nomination procedure for the main prize (no self-nominations). Persons and institutions from the field of development research are invited to submit nominations of persons (max. 2 A4 pages with reasons for the nomination, plus enclosures such as publication lists/project lists) via e-mail to: entwicklungsforschungspreis@oead.at

The jury will use the following aspects as decisive criteria for awarding the prize:

• Personal commitment to development research
• Scientific excellence
• Significance for Austrian and international development research
• Contribution to solving current "global challenges"
• Contribution to the transfer of knowledge to a non-scientific public

The main prize is endowed with 5,000 euros. For the exact requirements for the main prize for development research 2023 please see the conditions for participation.

The junior researcher's prize, which is also awarded every two years, recognises scientific work and publications in the field of “global challenges” (e.g. climate change, poverty, migration, scarcity of resources, food security, demographic change, health, sustainable urban development, conflict prevention and peacekeeping, etc.). Each call for applications has its own thematic focus. Young scientists are invited to submit scientific articles on the following thematic focus in 2023:

ENERGY TRANSITION and the GLOBAL SOUTH

13% of the world's population (940 million people) have no access to electricity. And 40 % or three thousand million people worldwide cook with the simplest technologies such as open fires. Lack of access to modern energy supply and inefficient use of energy are the biggest energy problems in the Global South.

Accordingly, the average per capita consumption of energy worldwide varies by a factor of 10 between poor and rich countries, and even by a factor of 100 in the case of electricity consumption. A person from the USA not only consumes twice as much energy on average as a person from the EU but also ten times as much as an average person from India.

Many countries in the Global South actually have high percentages of renewable energy in their respective energy balances, especially bioenergy. However, this is often not used in a sustainable way – e.g. open fires with high emissions and low efficiency. However, there are technologies that could use bioenergy much more efficiently. The "energy transition" in the Global South differs fundamentally from that in industrialised countries. The discourse on "energy transition" in the Global North primarily refers to the shift away from burning fossil fuels, such as coal, oil and natural gas, in favour of renewable energy such as solar, hydropower, geothermal, wind and modern bioenergy. In the Global South, of course, it is often less about a shift from fossil fuels to renewable energy sources and more about establishing energy supply structures in the first place.

But this can also be an advantage. What previously meant a lack of opportunities in life, namely a lack of energy supply in the poorest areas of our world, has on the other hand saved the expensive detour via an energy system based on fossil fuels because – similar to the development of the telecommunications infrastructure – they can take the route to the new system – in our example mobile phones – directly. The "new" energy technologies such as wind energy and photovoltaics have become significantly cheaper in the last few years than the "old" ones such as oil- or coal-fired power plants. This opens up the opportunity to rely on these new technologies right from the start of the first electrification project: a local grid for a village powered by photovoltaics or by a small hydropower plant, or a wind farm on the coast. And, for cooking, modern technologies cannot only increase the efficiency of the traditional use of firewood from 10% to 80% but also switch to other regionally available and previously unused agricultural waste.

Of course, these renewable paths are not a sure-fire success; they need municipal support through political measures and instruments, they require financing and regulation and certainly new forms of social participation. Access to and use of energy touch on topics that go beyond the use of technologies and enable innovative local and global solutions through the inclusion of different perspectives and approaches. Social, cultural, political, economic, ecological and technological aspects of the broad field of "ENERGY TRANSITION and the GLOBAL SOUTH" should be presented in the texts by young researchers theoretically and/or on the basis of specific studies and examples and also analysed with regard to options for action.

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The jury will use the following criteria to select the winning text:

• Scientific relevance and excellence
• Relevance for sustainable developments
• Contribution to solving "global challenges"
• Significance for the scientific community and the non-scientific public

Young scientists (under 35 years of age) should send their scientific articles for the junior researcher’s prize 2023 including a CV and the completed and scanned submission form via e-mail to: entwicklungsforschungspreis@oead.at

The junior researcher’s prize is endowed with 2,500 euros. For the exact requirements for the Junior Researcher’s Prize for Development Research 2023 please see the conditions for participation.

The jury consists of five recognised experts in the field of development research. The meeting of the expert jury will be convened and chaired by the OeAD-GmbH; the OeAD-GmbH has no voting rights. The award winners will be selected after discussion in a secret ballot with a majority decision. The names of the award winners proposed by the jury will be forwarded to the BMBWF for approval.

Expert jury 2023:

• Dr. Josef Schmidt
• Prof. Stefanie Lemke
• Dr. Maria Dabringer
• Dr. Melanie Pichler
• Mag. Martina Neuwirth

The main prize will be awarded together with the junior researcher’s prize at a festive ceremony in spring 2024 by the federal minister of education, science and research or a high-ranking departmental representative together with the management of the OeAD-GmbH.