The members of the jury are responsible for the scientific evaluation of all applications that meet the formal eligibility criteria. The complete list of jury members is available here.
Evaluation criteria
- Originality of the article
- Significance of the research contribution to the branches
- Research effort and return
- Language and style of the article
- Links to other branches and interdisciplinarity
- Relevance of the research question to a wider public with an interest in the Humanities and Social Sciences
Stages of the evaluation procedure
- Administrative verification: Verification of the formal eligibility criteria is carried out by the Secretariat of the Swiss Academy of Humanities and Social Sciences. Applicants who do not pass this round will be notified.
- Jury evaluation 1st round: All applications that meet the formal eligibility criteria will be read by two members of the jury who will each assign an evaluation score. These scores will determine which applicants will be shortlisted and become finalists.
- Jury evaluation 2nd round: The shortlisted applications will be evaluated by all the members of the jury. The scores will be added up and ranked.
- Jury evaluation 3rd round: All members of the jury meet to make the final decision. During the meeting, they discuss the applications with the highest scores. The jury members then vote on the three prizewinners (First Prize, Second Prize and Third Prize). A Diploma of Merit will be awarded to all finalists who are not among the three prizewinners.
- Communication of results: In April and as soon as the final decision has been made, the prizewinners and finalists will be notified by e-mail. The Academy’s communications team will invite the prizewinners to a short video recording session in Bern. Applicants who are not among the finalists will be notified at the same time by e-mail (noreply(at)sagw.ch).
The prize is awarded at the annual meeting of the Swiss Academy of Humanities and Social Sciences on 5 June 2026.