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The innovation prize "Green Academia Award" is an essential part of the measures taken by the University of Graz to promote sustainable mobility and emission reduction during international business trips and at the same time to make the scientific achievements of researchers visible.
The "Green Academia Award" is presented annually to the most successful branches of science (WZe) in the field of sustainable mobility and research performance in the previous year. The decisive factor for the award is the success in the combination of climate protection target achievement in the area of international staff mobility and research target achievement in the area of quality publications. These two criteria were included as sub-goals in the 2022-2024 target and performance agreement (ZLV) of the six faculties and are evaluated on an ongoing basis.
The most successful branches of science were honored for the first time during the Sustainability Day 2023. The best combined success in the previous year will be awarded prize money of 50,000 euros. The second and third-placed branches of science will also be specially honored with prize money of 20,000 euros and 10,000 euros respectively. Ten other branches of science that have best achieved their climate protection target according to the target and performance agreement (best (over)fulfillment of the emission reduction target) will each receive a 1000 euro recognition bonus.
The prize money or the recognition bonus will be transferred to the WZ institutes for free use for financing purposes in research and teaching in accordance with the sustainability and research goals of the University of Graz (in the case of several institutes, aliquot according to their share of staff in the scientific branch).
You can find more details on the modalities of the award and the calculation of the prize ranking ("CarbSmartIndex") here (ICM-UniGraz_Infoblatt-GreenAcademiaAward_Jun2023.pdf; in German).
A few facts about the trophy
The trophy for the "Green Academia Award" innovation prize is made of wood and was manufactured in northern Italy. The trophy is intended as a wandering trophy, which means that the same trophy is awarded annually with the presentation of the "Green Academia Award" and therefore a new one does not have to be produced every year.
The winners of the Green Academia Award 2025
As part of Sustainability Day, the Green Academia Award was presented for the second time this year:
As part of Sustainability Day, the Green Academia Award was presented for the third time this year to the following academic disciplines:
1st place
: Earth Sciences
2nd place
: Business Administration
3rd place
: History
In addition, recognition awards were presented to the following 10 academic disciplines:
Environmental Systems Sciences, Molecular Biosciences, Psychology, Pharmacy, Economics, Law, Education, Geography, Sociology, Sports Science [Further information]
"Green Academia Award" winners in recent years
1st place
Philosophy
2nd place
Earth Sciences
3rd place
Environmental Systems Science
In addition, recognition prizes were awarded to the following 10 scientific disciplines:
Economics, Sociology, Theology, Chemistry, Education, Business Administration, Sports Science, Pharmacy, History, Molecular Biosciences Further information
This year, the Green Academia Award was presented to the following scientific disciplines for the first time. It went to the following branches of science:
1st place
Educational sciences
2nd place
Economics
3rd place
Arts and Humanities
In addition, recognition prizes were awarded to the following 10 scientific disciplines:
Environmental Systems Sciences, Pharmacy, Earth Sciences, Philosophy, Theology, Molecular Biosciences, Business Administration, Physics, Sociology, Chemistry Further Information