Deadline: 31 May 2024 at midnight (CEST time).

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The European network on cultural management and policy, ENCATC, launches the call for applications for the 2024 ENCATC Research Award on Cultural Policy and Cultural Management.

This prestigious recognition aims to stimulate academic research in the field of cultural policy and cultural management with an emphasis on its applied implications. The ENCATC Research Award also has the ambition to contribute to the process of creating a network of scholars who are competent in doing ground-breaking research projects in cultural policy and cultural management.

The annual ENCATC Research Award is granted to a recently published PhD thesis exploring topical issues at stake and taking a step from evaluative (descriptive) to innovative and internationally oriented research designs. In addition, it is rewarded to a PhD thesis that can inform policy making and benefit practitioners in the broad field of culture.

For this Research Award, a very broad definition of culture is used, going from the arts, cultural heritage and culture and creative sectors. Doctoral thesis submitted to the call should be related to the domain of cultural management and or policy.

Granted each year, the Award consists in a new book based on the winning doctoral thesis being published in the  ENCATC Advances in Cultural Management and Policy Book Series, a series of publications specialising in topics related to cultural management and cultural policy. The ENCATC Book Series is now edited by Routledge, the world’s leading academic publisher in the Humanities, Social Sciences and STEM.

2024 Schedule

The 2024 call for ENCATC Research Award applications is as follows:

  • 18 April 2024: Launch of the 2024 Call for Applications
  • 31 May 2024: Closing date for applications at midnight CEST Time
  • 3 – 30 June 2024: Assessment of the applications
  • 4 July 2024: Announcement of the shortlisted candidates
  • 18-20 September 2024 (exact date TBC): Ceremony in 2024 ENCATC Congress in Lecce, Italy

Assessment criteria

The Assessment criteria will be based on:

  • Thematic area;
  • Quality of the research and the research methodology;
  • Originality of the research topic;
  • Innovative character of the research design;
  • Relevance and inspiration for the field and/or for policy makers;
  • International and comparative dimension of the research;
  • Quality of writing.

Assessment Procedure

An international Jury will evaluate the applications and select the finalists.

The selection process will take place in two steps:

  1. A pre-assessment will be carried out to select the best candidates. For this, all eligible applications will be individually read and evaluated privately, according to the assessment criteria, by at least two Jury members.
  2. Once the best candidates are selected, an individual, quantitative assessment of the different criteria by all Jury members – except for those with a conflict of interest, who will be excluded from the process – , will be carried out. After this, Jury members will select the shortlisted candidates upon discussion in an online meeting. Qualitative measures such as the expected overall quality of the resulting book, the timeliness of the topic and its alignment to ENCATC priorities, or the insertion of the resulting book in the ENCATC Book Series, among others, will be factored into this discussion, in a genuine peer review assessment process.

Announcement and acceptance

The winner will be selected and announced at the occasion of the ENCATC Research Award Ceremony to be organised on the 18 – 20 September (exact date TBC) in Lecce, Italy, as part of the ENCATC Congress 2024, and publicly disclosed through the ENCATC website and social media channels.

Upon acceptance, the winner must also commit to personally attend the Award ceremony

Depending on the design of the Award Ceremony programme, finalists may be invited to present their work to an international audience.

The fact of participating in the ENCATC Research Award signifies the acceptance of its conditions and the Jury decisions, and renunciation of any claim in their respect on the part of the applicant.

If the wining candidate does not accept the Award, it will be offered to the candidate that came in the second place.

When accepting the Award, the winner must commit to provide ENCATC with a proof edited manuscript in English – ENCATC will not cover proofreading costs – within the 5 months after the Ceremony.

The winner will be requested to sign an agreement with the publisher, Routledge.

The winner shall also commit to actively contribute to the dissemination of the book and promote it via different channels and events formats.