Austrian Development Research Award 2021 goes to Mattersburger Kreis

The Junior Researcher’s Prize went to Christina Gugerell and Marta López Cifuentes

The Austrian Development Research Award is awarded every two years to institutions and individuals working in science and research.
The Federal Ministry of Education, Science and Research (BMBWF) and the OeAD, Austria's Agency for Education and Internationalisation, awarded the Austrian Development Research Award 2021 on 2 December 2021. The main prize of 5,000 euros went to the Mattersburger Kreis; the young scientists Christina Gugerell and Marta López Cifuentes received the Junior Researcher’s Prize of 2,000 euros. Every two years since 2013 scientific institutions, scientists and junior researchers have been presented with prizes for their excellent scientific achievements in the field of development research. The award is endowed by the BMBWF and implemented by the OeAD.
“This award is an ideal opportunity to bring development research into the focus of attention. The aim is to honour scientists who, with their analysis and research, offer possible solutions to social problems and to sensitise the general public for important topics of the future. I would like to warmly congratulate the prize winners,” says the science minister Heinz Faßmann.
The OeAD’s managing director Jakob Calice emphasises: “Achieving the global sustainability goals is only possible by means of an international exchange of knowledge and highly qualified development research in which topics such as social, economic or ecological developments are analysed and discussed. I am pleased that we were able to reward institutions and scientists today who, with perseverance and patience, have made extraordinary achievements in this future-oriented field.”
Founded 40 years ago by students and lecturers, the Mattersburger Kreis für Entwicklungspolitik (Mattersburg Circle for Development Policy) is an indispensable part of the scientific landscape in Austria. The interdisciplinary publications “Journal für Entwicklungspolitik (“Journal of Development Studies”) (JEP)” and the “Buchreihe zu Gesellschaft, Entwicklung und Politik (“Book Series on Society, Development and Politics”) (GEP)”, which have been published for many years, deserve special mention. Locally and globally cross-linked relevant and excellent research activities have thus been made accessible to a wider public for decades. Their importance for generations of students and young scientists and scholars from a wide range of disciplines should be emphasised especially.
The young scientists Christina Gugerell and Marta López Cifuentes received the Junior Researcher’s Prize for their article “Food democracy: Possibilities under the frame of the current food system”, published in a renowned international journal. In it they present the concept of food democracy, which they develop further in an innovative way. Food democracy deals with the actors within a food system and how they can be more involved with the aim of sustainable transformation. The authors go beyond a purely theoretical presentation and shed light on this concept in the context of the urban food system in Vienna.
 
Enquiries and contact:
Federal Ministry of Education, Science and Research
 Mathias Klein, BA
 0664/88341135
 www.bmbwf.gv.at
OeAD – Agency for Education and Internationalisation
 Mag. Ursula Hilmar
 +43 1 53408-270
 presse@oead.at
 www.oead.at