Award of Excellence

of the Federal Minister of Women, Science and Research for graduates of doctoral programmes in the academic year 2025/2026

Since 2008, the Federal Minister of Women, Science and Research has been awarding an annual prize for outstanding dissertations at universities as a sign of support for young academics.

Overall, the best graduates of doctoral programmes in the academic year 2025/2026 will be honoured with the "Award of Excellence" with the amount of 3,000 euros each.

The number of nominations per university is based on the number of degrees per university. The University of Innsbruck can nominate three people in 2026.

Graduates of doctoral programmes from the academic year 2025/2026 are eligible to apply.

  1. Austrian citizenship, EEA citizenship or well as third-country nationals and stateless persons with equal status according to § 4 StudFG
  2. Completion of the degree programme at the University of Innsbruck in the academic year 2025/2026 (01.09.2025 – 31.08.2026)
  3. Highest overall grade of ‘very good’ or ‘pass with distinction’
  4. The dissertation must be excellent and best evaluated

When selecting award winners, preference will be given to externally reviewed dissertations or external reviews (if an in-house review and an external review are available) will be given greater weight in the evaluation process.

Please have the application entered into the project database responsible project database officer at your department and upload all documents individually as .pdf files. Send the project database number as an application by e-mail to forschungsfoerderung@uibk.ac.at no later than

Monday, September 7, 2026

Documents to be submitted

  1. Data sheet of the Federal Ministry download

  2. Study record and confirmation of study period LFU:online (Please note: please submit only ONE pdf.document)

  3. Degree certificate (Rigorosenzeugnis) and notification of the award of the academic degree (Please note: please submit only ONE pdf.document)

  4. Both dissertation reports

  5. Short description of the dissertation (max. 1 page)

  6. Curriculum vitae and list of publications

  7. Letter of motivation (1-2 pages)

The next call is expected to take place again in summer 2027.

With an application, all rights necessary for the purpose of processing are granted. Incomplete applications may be excluded from the selection process. With regard to data protection, please note the following link: https://www.uibk.ac.at/en/dataprotection/general/data-protection-information-for/

The prizes will be awarded by November at the latest. The awards ceremony will take place on December 10, 2026 in Vienna in the Aula der Wissenschaften.

The German version of the call prevails over the English one in case deviations.

Enquiries & advice

project.service.office
Research funding and mentoring

MMag. Dr Gundula Maria Schwinghammer

+43 512 507 34417
forschungsfoerderung@uibk.ac.at

address
Technikerstr 21a, ICT-Gebäude, ZiNr. 1 W 10
A-6020 Innsbruck

Office hours
Monday - Thursday: 9 am - 4 pm
Friday: 9 am - 12 pm
Appointments outside office hours by arrangement

Further information
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