Research Prize
Each year the Praemium Erasmianum Foundation awards a maximum of five Research Prizes for exceptional PhD dissertations completed at Dutch universities. A prize consists of a sum of € 3,000 and a certificate.

Domain
The prize focuses on the humanities, social sciences and law. Among the areas covered are linguistics and literature, archaeology, history, theology, philosophy, political sciences, socio-cultural sciences, psychology and education sciences, law and design.

Criteria
Apart from the academic quality of the dissertation, factors taken into consideration include its originality, international significance, style and case-transcending treatment of the subject. A ‘cum laude’ distinction is not a prerequisite, as there are no uniform criteria for awarding that distinction. The jury lends considerable weight to the importance of the dissertation outside its own discipline. Accessibility, a wide impact and readability – also for non-specialists – are important considerations. In addition, the Research Prize is intended not only to acknowledge dissertations of outstanding quality but also to encourage promising researchers to continue their scholarly work.

Invitation
Each year those faculties where research in the academic fields listed in Article 2 is conducted are invited to make a nomination. Each faculty can nominate one thesis. If more than 20 dissertations are completed each year at the faculty, a maximum of two dissertations may be nominated, provided these come from fundamentally different academic fields.

Nominations
Nominations must be submitted by the dean of the faculty. The nomination must be accompanied by a motivation (maximum 500 words) of the choice, two hard copies of the dissertation, and the completed form. In addition, the nomination, the dissertation (PDF) and the completed form must be digitally sent to spe@erasmusprijs.org.

Nominations must be received by the Foundation no later than 15 December 2018. The period within which the doctoral research must have taken place must fall between 15 December 2016 and 15 December 2018.

Nominations that do not comply with the requirements specified in Articles 4-6 will not be considered.

Selection
From all the nominations received, a selection committee from the board of the Praemium Erasmianum Foundation, supported where necessary by external experts, chooses a maximum of five winners. The winners will be selected in April 2019. The prizes will be awarded on 16 May 2019.