Objective

To stimulate, encourage, acknowledge, and reward outstanding work performed by PhD students in life sciences using the Drosophila model, the European Drosophila Society (EDS) has established a prize to be awarded to the best PhD thesis for its exceptional quality and achievements.

Prize endowment

One prize will be awarded every two years, endowed with €1000 and a keynote presentation at the European Drosophila Research Conference (EDRC). The Awardee’s conference registration fee, accommodation and travel expenses (economy fare) will be covered.

Requirements

The prize is open to early-career researchers who completed their doctoral research in any field of biology utilizing the Drosophila model within the last two years in a research group located in countries represented within the EDB.

Candidates must be EDS members at the time of nomination.

Nomination system

For the current 2025 call, nominees who completed and defended their PhD work in the calendar years 2023 and 2024 may apply. This means that oral PhD Thesis defense must have taken place between January 1st, 2023, and December 31st, 2024.

Self-nominations and nominations by others are both welcome.
Individuals can nominate only one person.

Nomination documents 

The following documents in English must be submitted:

• A statement of appreciation justifying the nomination (maximum 1 page), highlighting the candidate's achievements, qualities, and contributions that make them worthy of the recognition or award.
• Abstract of the Doctoral Thesis (maximum 1 page)
• A copy of the PhD certificate or an official document stating the date of the oral PhD Thesis defense
• An academic curriculum vitae of the candidate (maximum 2 pages), including:

Full Name and email address

Title of the Doctoral Thesis 

Name(s) of supervisor(s), and institution awarding the PhD

List of publications, presentations, awards, etc.

Shortlisted candidates will be asked to provide their PhD Thesis, accompanied publications and preprints in PDF format.

Selection procedure

There is a biennial call for nominations.

Proposals received by the deadline are collected, checked for completeness and compliance with nomination requirements, and forwarded to the established EDS Selection Committee. Potential conflict of interests will be examined during the evaluation. 

Evaluation criteria

• Excellent scientific quality and clarity of the thesis
• Importance and contribution to the field of research 
• Contribution of the applicant to the work
• Innovative research approach

Application Procedure and Deadlines

Nominations must be received by February 28, midnight CET, via e-mail to the EDS PhD Prize e-mail address in the year of the EDRC.

Please submit the (self-)nomination as a single PDF document.

You will receive an automatic email confirming your submission. 

The Selection Committee reserves the right not to award the prize in the event of:

• Insufficient quality of submitted applications.
• Failure to meet competition criteria.

No appeals against the committee's decision will be accepted.

Award Announcement

The decision will be announced before the end of March in the year of the EDRC.

The award winner and the research topics will be presented to the public via the EDS website and to the scientific community during the European Drosophila Research Conference.

The Selection Committee

The Selection Committee aims to represent the diversity of the Drosophila research community. The Selection Committee consists of at least the 3 PhD Award Committee members elected by the European Drosophila Board, and at least 1 member nominated by the next EDRC organizing committee.

Questions

If you have any questions, please contact us via email.

Members of the selection committee 

Virginie Courtier-Orgogozo 

Giorgio F. Gilestro

Gabor Juhasz

Javier Morante 

Mirka Uhlirova