The Isaac Roet Prize: win 5,000 euros for your socially committed project

In this first round you can check if your idea would qualify, in a second round you will be invited to write a full proposal. The deadline for the first round is 7 April 2023.

Isaac Roet Prize

The Isaac Roet Prize is awarded annually to a student or early career researcher from the Faculty of Social and Behavioural Sciences whose project plan promotes the beliefs of Isaac Roet. These beliefs are the pursuit of a fair, just, safe and sustainable world. The key factor is the equal distribution of and access to resources and opportunities in our societies. Projects eligible for the prize are ones that make academic knowledge useful to society and that contribute to society.

Timeline submission

• Pitch your idea for a project (of some 200 words) and check whether it meets the criteria.
  Deadline: 7 April 2023
• If your idea qualifies, we will invite you to submit it in the form of a brief project proposal.
  Deadline: 1 September 2023
• The winner will be announced in the first week of October 2023. We will present the award at a live event.

Submit your idea for a project to: k.kraal@uva.nlExternal link.

Conditions full proposal (second round)

The project must meet a number of conditions:

1. It must be linked to the objective of the Isaac Roet Fund: fostering a fair, safe and sustainable world through the equal distribution of and access to resources and opportunities in societies.
2. The project must yield usable knowledge, activities and/or products for society. Proposals for research activities only will not be considered. The proposals should concern activities and resources that focus on practice, such as activities in schools to help disadvantaged pupils or to promote diversity, or activities or resources for neighbourhoods to promote liveability and social cohesion. You can find examples of previous winners below. The proposal can take any form, in the Netherlands or elsewhere, as long as it is focused on the ideas of Isaac Roet and involves putting knowledge into practice.
3. It must suit the project’s target group, allowing the latter to actually benefit from the project.
4. The project may not be funded from regular research funds.
5. The project plan must include a strong motivation and substantiate any financial aspects.
6. The project must be valid and feasible.
7. The winners will be asked to provide feedback on completion of their project. The project and its results will be shared through the FMG’s communication channels.

Jury

An independent jury will assess the submitted projects on the basis of quality, feasibility and the extent to which they embrace Isaac Roet’s philosophy.

Prize money

The winner of the Isaac Roet Prize will receive €5,000 to realise the submitted project. This money can also be used to start a project, provided that other funds will be made available at a later stage to complete it.

Previous winners

• Winner of the Isaac Roet Prize 2022: How can we make ‘repair’ the new cool?
  The Isaac Roet Prize 2022 was awarded to Anna Bosshard to organise and evaluate repair workshops in Amsterdam that enable and motivate young residents to reduce their clothing consumption. ‘By giving practical advice in a communal setting, we hope to empower participants that they (and others) don’t need new clothes all the time.’  She will organise the repair workshops together with the United Repair Centre in Amsterdam of Makers Unite. 
  Read moreExternal link
• Winner of the Isaac Roet Prize 2021: Empowering adolescents in local communities.
  With support from the Isaac Roet Fund Francesca Ranalli (PhD candidate at the University of Amsterdam), Jade Mandrake (visual artist, poet, and artistic researcher) and Eileen Moyer (Professor in the Anthropology of Ecology, Health and Climate Change) hope to connect young people to their local spaces and help them developing a sense of belonging and worth in the community while preventing marginalization and risk of criminalization. 
  Read moreExternal link

About Isaac Roet and background of the fund

Isaac Roet was an alumnus of the Municipal University (Gemeente Universiteit), which was later to become the University of Amsterdam, and was a registered accountant as well as an inventor. On 3 June 1927, he recorded in his will that one-fifth of his estate should be used for a contest aimed at ‘fostering world peace and a more efficient distribution’. Isaac was murdered in Auschwitz on 11 February 1944. Isaac’s will came into effect after the war and the municipality of Amsterdam received a sum of 10,000 guilders, on the condition that the university would allocate it to the prize. The estate was later transferred to the Amsterdam University Fund (AUF) and was converted into a separate fund: the Isaac Roet Fund. The Isaac Roet Prize was awarded for the first time in 1989, in the Peace Palace in The Hague. Together with the Faculty of Social and Behavioural Sciences, the AUF endeavours to award the Isaac Roet Prize every year to a special project that contributes to a better world.

Contact

For questions about the prize, please contact Karen Kraal via k.kraal@uva.nlExternal link.