Press release: Danubius Awards 2024

Photo credit: Walter Skokanitsch Fotografie

Federal Minister Polaschek: Excellent researchers honoured at the Danubius Awards 2024

 At the ceremony of the Danubius Awards 2024, researchers from the Danube region were honoured for their scientific achievements

On 14 November, a total of 16 researchers were honoured for their scientific contribution to addressing challenges of the region at the Danubius Awards 2024 ceremony at the University for Continuing Education Krems.

The “Danubius Award 2024” goes to Prof. Marek Nekula. Dr. Ana Pajvančić-Cizelj has been awarded the “Danubius Mid-Career Award 2024”. In addition, 14 young scientists from the Danube region were honoured with the “Danubius Young Scientist Awards”.

Martin Polaschek, Federal Minister of Education, Science and Research, congratulated the award winners and emphasized the importance of cross-border cooperation in science and research. “There are many common challenges along the Danube, as the dramatic flooding in September has shown. In order to be able to act with foresight and in the interests of society as a whole, policymakers need the knowledge and insights of researchers in all disciplines. The excellence and diverse expertise of this year’s award winners forms a solid basis for sustainably mastering the challenges of the future, seizing opportunities and driving innovative solutions. I congratulate all the awardees”, said Polaschek.

The “Danubius Award” was established in 2011 to honor researchers who have dealt with the Danube region in an outstanding way with their scientific work. The Danubius Young Scientist Awards, which have been in existence since 2014, are intended to make the excellent talents in the region visible and to strengthen their international networking.

The focus of this year’s award winner Prof. Marek Nekula is on the interdisciplinary connection of the fields of Slavic Studies, German Studies and Jewish Studies, both in literary and cultural studies, as well as in linguistics and historiography. Prof. Nekula was involved in the Czech edition of Franz Kafka’s writings as editor and translator. For the German critical edition of Kafka, he translated and commented on the Czech texts and text fragments of Franz Kafka. In addition, he makes a significant contribution to intercultural understanding and the culture of remembrance through his work in the reappraisal of Jewish literature and the management of the Bohemicum Regensburg-Passau at the University of Regensburg.

Dr. Ana Pajvančić-Cizelj, who was awarded the “Danubius Mid-Career Award 2024”, dedicates her research to the urban and spatial dimensions of Europeanization, (de)democratization and feminist urban politics in Central, Eastern and Southeastern Europe. She is editor-in-chief of Sociologija, one of the leading sociological journals in the Southeastern European region. From 2021 to 2023, she was a Marie Skłodowska Curie Individual Fellow at the Centre for Southeast European Studies at the University of Graz and is currently a Senior Scientist at the Department of European Politics and Democracy Research at the University for Continuing Education Krems.

Friedrich Faulhammer, Chairman of the Board of Directors of the Institute for the Danube Region and Central Europe at the award ceremony: “I am very pleased that we are once again able to honour outstanding researchers from the Danube region together with the Ministry of Education, Science and Research, in order to highlight the existing excellence at the universities and research institutions in the region”.

Winners of the “Danubius Young Scientist Awards”: