Awardees 2017

In 2017, the prize for outstanding doctoral programs in Berlin was awarded for the first time at the Einstein Foundation's New Year's Reception.

Prize winners were the Berlin School of Mind and Brain and the Friedrich Schlegel Graduate School, which shared first place, and the Berlin Graduate School of Ancient Studies in second place. The total prize money was about one million euros distributed over the next three years.

The Berlin School of Mind and Brain prepares young scientists for challenging interdisciplinary work in the field of mind and brain research. It is an institution of Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin in cooperation with Charité-Universitätsmedizin. Special recognition was given to the nearly one hundred percent graduation rate and the networking of top international researchers with young talent at the Berlin location. The prize money is to be used to organize the transition phases from master's to doctoral studies and from doctorate to postdoctorate, for example by awarding graduation prizes and transitional scholarships.

The Graduate School promotes research in literary studies that is methodologically innovative through reflection on its text-, media-, and culture-comparative procedures. It is the only genuinely literary studies graduate school to have been funded by the Excellence Initiative of the German federal and state governments since 2007 and is located at Freie Universität Berlin. In the second funding period, Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin was added as a cooperation partner. Here, too, the high graduation rate and internationality were praised. The award funds are needed to further strengthen international visibility and networking, for example with the help of summer schools or the awarding of short-term scholarships.

The Berlin Graduate School of Ancient Studies is the world's only permanent graduate school in the field of ancient studies. It is jointly supported by Freie Universität Berlin and Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin. In addition to interdisciplinarity, international networking is an important element of all doctoral programs offered at the Graduate School. In particular, the efforts to establish long-term collaborations, the implementation of regular evaluations, and the high proportion of women were considered praiseworthy. The prize money is to be used, among other things, for scholarships abroad, the exchange of teaching staff and for the introduction of a further focus on "Ancient Economics".