FutureKnowledge – the Award
Award format of the Commerzbank Foundation in cooperation with the National Academy of Sciences Leopoldina to honor outstanding early-career scientists with forward-looking research results.
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Grant criteria
Funding objective
Awarding outstanding early-career researchers who address future challenges in their research and deliver excellent achievements in the subject area of the respective Leopoldina Annual Meeting.
Eligible to apply
- Individuals
Funding requirements
- Outstanding achievements in the subject area of the respective Leopoldina Annual Assembly
- Early career researcher status
- Interdisciplinary research desired
- Nomination by the National Academy of Sciences Leopoldina
Evaluation criteria
- Innovative content and future relevance of the research
- Quality of the scientific performance
- Relation to the annual theme of the Leopoldina Assembly
- Interdisciplinarity of the research approaches
Description
The "ZukunftsWissen" award annually honors outstanding early-career researchers from all disciplines represented at the National Academy of Sciences Leopoldina. In cooperation between the Commerzbank Foundation and the Leopoldina, innovative research projects are recognized that address future-relevant challenges and are ideally approached in an interdisciplinary manner. With a one-time prize of €50,000, the program provides a strong incentive for early-career researchers who contribute excellent work within the framework of the respective Leopoldina annual assembly. Selection is based on the degree of innovation, scientific quality, interdisciplinarity, and direct relevance to the assembly’s annual theme.
Nominations for the award must be made by the National Academy of Sciences Leopoldina. Eligible participants are individuals with "Early Career" status whose achievements in the thematic field of the respective annual meeting are considered outstanding. An interdisciplinary approach is expressly encouraged to foster new perspectives and synergies between disciplines. The award ceremony takes place during the Leopoldina annual assembly and includes a public lecture by the awardee. As a non-profit institution, the Commerzbank Foundation has been supporting science projects with sustainable impact for over 50 years and offers this format as an attractive forum to strengthen early-career researchers at the federal level.
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