Cornelia Pieper, Minister of State at the Federal Foreign Office, and Ángel Gabilondo, the Spanish Education Minister, today (18 June) presented the Julián Sanz del Río Prize for young researchers in Spain and Germany. This newly established prize is being awarded by the German Academic Exchange Service (DAAD) and the Fundación Universidad.es. This year’s prizewinners are the Spanish contemporary historian and Germany expert Dr Carlos Sanz and the German legal expert Dr Mirja Feldmann, whose speciality is the comparative study of the German and Spanish legal systems.

This prize is intended for highly qualified young German and Spanish researchers for their academic work on the other country. It comes with a 5000 euro cash sum for each winner as well as a one-month scholarship to carry out research in Germany or Spain. Work in a different academic field will be recognized each year, and the ceremony will be held alternately in the two countries.

The prize is funded by the Federal Foreign Office and the Spanish Government. It is named after the Spanish legal expert and philosopher Julián Sanz del Río (1814–1869), who studied in Heidelberg and took Humboldt’s ideas on reforming universities back to Spain.

The Minister of State and the Spanish Education Minister have also opened the exhibition “Beyond borders: a century of scientific cooperation between Spain and Germany”, which is being organized jointly by the DAAD and the Spanish Research Council.

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