Award Announcement International Public Procurement Award (IPA)

International Public Procurement Award (IPA)
forum vergabe e.V.

Former Director at the German Ministry of Economy, Mrs. Brigitte Krause-Sigle, and the forum vergabe e.V. have jointly launched the International Public Procurement Award (IPA), awarded for the first time in 2004. On the occasion of the “forum vergabe Gespräche 2024″ the forum vergabe e.V. will donate an award of EUR 5,000 for an outstanding academic thesis with relevance to national, European or international public procurement law (e.g. post-doctoral thesis, doctoral thesis, diploma thesis, master thesis or monograph).

  1. Young academics from Europe up to the age of 35 can apply for the award by submitting a thesis completed within the period 1. April 2022 to 30. September 2023. The “date of completion” is considered as
    • the date of the oral examination (or the final report, if there is no oral examination) as regards post-doctoral theses, dissertations, diploma and master theses,
    • the date of the first submission of the manuscript or other academic works (e.g. monographs) to the relevant publishers.
  2. The application must be submitted to the forum vergabe e.V., Spichernstraße 15, D 10777 Berlin, by 30. September 2023 at the latest with
    • the thesis in duplicate in German or English,
    • any reports (e.g. from the Ph.d procedure) in German or English,
    • a curriculum vitae,
    • the following written declaration: “I agree to allow the forum vergabe e.V. to use an extract of the thesis submitted by the author, should it receive the IPA, free of charge in publications issued by the forum vergabe or in professional journals. I declare that there are no rights restricting or preventing the forum vergabe e.V. from using the thesis submitted free of charge”.
  3. For theses which do not fulfil one of the above conditions, the missing documents may be submitted within four weeks. If the forum vergabe has not received the documents by the end of this period the thesis cannot be considered for the IPA.
  4. Multiple applications with the same thesis are not permitted.
  5. All applicants will be informed of the result of the award contest by 28. February 2024 at the latest. Theses not awarded the IPA will be returned to the applicants. The forum vergabe will treat all applications with the utmost confidence.
  6. The winner of the award will be decided by a jury appointed by the board of the forum vergabe, under the leadership of the Chairman of the Board. If the jury should decide that two theses are equally deserving of the award, then both theses will be awarded the IPA. In this case the jury will decide whether to divide the prize money equally between the prize-winners or whether it should be divided differently.
  7. The award ceremony will take place at the “forum vergabe Gespräche” in April 2024. The award-winner will be invited to this event at the expense of the forum vergabe and will be given an opportunity to present the main conclusions of his thesis to participants from the spheres of politics and business, academia, the legal profession, public procurement and legal review bodies etc. Should two theses be awarded the IPA (see no. 4), both award-winners will be invited to present the main conclusions of their theses.