MDPI Awards: Recognition and Funding for Researchers
MDPI established its award program in 2016 to reward academic communities and acknowledge exceptional research across a diverse range of disciplines. In 2024, MDPI is proud to have awarded a total of 660,000 CHF across 448 journal awards.
Awards ensure that vital research is not only well funded, but also the outstanding contributions of academics are recognized. Through its awards, MDPI remains committed to uplifting researchers and rewarding the integral role they play in publishing high-quality Open Access research.
This article will explore the range of awards that MDPI offers, including journal-specific and larger awards. Additionally, we will explore the benefits of MDPI’s award scheme, along with key eligibility requirements and nomination details.
MDPI’s journal awards
MDPI offers a wide range of awards, most of which are awarded annually on a journal-by-journal basis. Recipients of these awards are decided by a committee of subject-specific experts. The most common journal awards include:
- Best Paper Award
- Young Investigator Award
- Best PhD Thesis Award
- Outstanding Reviewer Award
- Travel Award
- Editor of Distinction Award
Best Paper Award
The Best Paper Award focuses on recognizing remarkable papers with significant scientific merit and impact. Winners of the Best Paper Award are carefully selected by the journal’s award committee.
Selection criteria for this award include:
- Scientific merit and broad impact;
- Originality of the research objectives and/or the ideas presented;
- Creativity of the study design or uniqueness of the approaches and concepts;
- Clarity of presentation;
- Number of citations and downloads.
The Best Paper Awards commonly cover both research and review articles, though this is determined by the individual journals. The number of winners is similarly decided according to each journal with some offering prizes for a higher number of awardees.
Click here for more journal-specific details about the Best Paper Award.
Outstanding Reviewer Awards
Reviewers have an essential role within MDPI’s rigorous and transparent peer review process.
MDPI remains dedicated to awarding individuals who have generously contributed their time to reviewing papers. Outstanding reviewers are those who have shown the highest standards of professionalism, timeliness and thoroughness in their reports.
Selection criteria for this award include:
- Being a reviewer for the corresponding journal within the annual period;
- Number of review reports;
- Quality and timeliness of review reports.
Winners are selected from the preceding year by the journal’s award committee. The number of awardees differs across journals.
Click here for more journal-specific details about the Outstanding Reviewers Award.
Young Investigator Award
MDPI is committed to supporting individuals as they embark on their career. The MDPI Young Investigator Award allows journals to recognize the achievements of early career investigators within specialized subject areas.
Eligibility requirements for this award include:
- Must have received their PhD no more than 10 years prior to nomination;
- Must have produced ground-breaking research and made a significant contribution to advancements in their subject area;
- Candidates must be nominated by senior scientists.
The Young Investigator Award operates on a nomination basis. This helps young researchers boost their profile, and the visibility of their research, with the support of established scientists.
Best PhD Thesis Award
The Best PhD Thesis Award is another annual award which supports young scholars. Unlike other MDPI awards, winners typically have not previously contributed to an MDPI publication. Instead, the award recognizes those who have completed an outstanding PhD thesis within their field of research.
The award aims to encourage the continuation of their work and further contribution to their field.
Eligibility requirements for this award include:
- The candidate must be a PhD student or recently qualified PhD fellow who has produced a highly anticipated thesis with great academic potential;
- The PhD thesis must be their original work;
- The PhD thesis must have been previously defended.
A previous winner of the Best PhD Thesis Award for the journal Minerals, Adrienn Szucs, spoke to the MDPI Blog team about her experiences. You can read the full interview here.
Travel Award
The MDPI Travel Award was created to give junior scientists the opportunity to present their latest research at an academic conference of their choice. The award continues MDPI’s dedication towards young scholars by offering invaluable networking opportunities. The Travel Award works to remove barriers preventing young scholars from expanding their academic network and aligns with MDPI’s mission to foster high-quality, Open Access, scientific exchange.
Eligibility requirements for this award include:
- Postdoctoral fellows or PhD students;
- Plans to attend an international conference in the upcoming year
Alike other MDPI awards, the number of awardees varies between journals.
Click here for more journal-specific details about the Travel Award, including key documents for application.
Editor of Distinction Award
The role of Editorial Board Members within MDPI’s publication process holds paramount importance. In short, they safeguard the integrity of journals by ensuring that all published research meets the highest standards of academic rigor.
Accordingly, some MDPI journals annually award the Editor of Distinction Award to recognize the contributions of Editorial Board Members.
Eligibility requirements for this award include:
- Individuals have contributed as part of a journal’s Editorial Board within the preceding year.
- Excluding senior members of Editorial Boards, such as Editors-in-Chief and Section Editors-in-Chief.
As is the case with other awards, journals maintain their own eligibility requirements, so please refer to individual award pages for more information.
Click here to see which journals offer this award.
Sustainability awards
Sustainability is a core value at MDPI. This is reflected by their ongoing commitment to the MDPI Sustainability Foundation, which was established in 2012. The non-profit organization supports societally relevant research that contributes to regional and global efforts toward a sustainable world.
The MDPI Sustainability Foundation celebrates outstanding contributions made by sustainability researchers through two major sustainability awards:
- World Sustainability Award
- Emerging Sustainability Leader Award
The World Sustainability Award celebrates individuals who have made significant contributions towards scholarly research on sustainability. Alternatively, the Emerging Sustainability Leader Award looks towards early-career researchers boasting outstanding contributions to sustainability research.
Tu Youyou Award
MDPI is proud to sponsor the Tu Youyou Award in honor of the Nobel Prize winner, Professor Tu Youyou.
Professor Tu Youyou discovered artemisinin, a drug which has significantly reduced the mortality rates of patients suffering from malaria. As a result of her exceptional impact on global health, Professor Tu Youyou was awarded the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine in 2015.
The biannual award was established in 2016 to acknowledge outstanding achievements within the fields of natural products chemistry and medicinal chemistry.
The award has a prize of 100,000 CHF, which is split between multiple awardees in some cases. Additionally, the Tu Youyou Award operates on a nomination basis; you can access the nomination form here.
For more information, visit our Tu Youyou Award page.
Jack Dangermond Award
The Jack Dangermond Award is sponsored by MDPI in collaboration with the Environmental Systems Research Institute (ESRI). The award was established to promote and advertise the ISPRS International Journal of Geo-information (IJGI) and honor the outstanding contributions of the ESRI President, Jack Dangermond.
Jack Dangermond is credited with his profound impact on the field of geographic information system (GIS) technology, most notably the creation of cutting-edge GIS and Geodesign technologies, which are used globally.
The Jack Dangermond Award is presented every four years to outstanding papers exploring topics within the scope of the journal. Winners receive a grant of 10,000 USD and an ISPRS certificate.
Click here to see our list of previous Jack Dangermond Award winners.
MDPI’s commitment to supporting early career researchers
MDPI understands the challenges that early career researchers face. Whether it is struggling to expand your network or funding your research, MDPI hopes its award scheme can help the next generation of incredible researchers as they embark on their career.
Amongst its awards, three are targeted at early career researchers. These are the Young Investigator Award, Best PhD Thesis Award, and the Travel Award.
Read our full article covering Early Career Researcher Awards.
Benefits of MDPI awards
The MDPI award scheme offers a range of benefits for winners. More than just cash prizes, awardees can equally benefit from invaluable opportunities for networking and recognition.
Monetary prizes
All MDPI awards include a cash prize, although the amount varies between awards and journals. Additionally, some journals offer tiered prizes, with reduced prizes for second or third place winners. For example, within its Best Paper Award, the Journal of Marine Science and Engineering offers a first prize of 500 CHF and a second award of 300 CHF.
MDPI awards commonly offer vouchers covering its article processing charge (APC), which are typically valid for one year. Equally, some journals offer discounts on APCs, such as the Outstanding Reviewer Award for the journal Biomedicines, which offers a 50% discount. This allows scholars to continue their great work and further progress their careers by expanding their portfolio of published work.
More information outlining prizes can be found on MDPI’s awards page.
Connecting scientific communities
Winners of MDPI awards also benefit from the prestige that comes with the title associated with the award, whether that be Outstanding Reviewer or Best Paper.
Awards also help to boost the profile and visibility of academics and their work. For example, Travel Awards grant winners the opportunity to attend a conference of their choosing. This provides great potential for networking and enhancing communication among scientists.
MDPI continues to award outstanding work
MDPI remains dedicated to supporting researchers across all disciplines. These awards serve as a source of inspiration and recognition for the talented individuals making outstanding achievements within their fields.
MDPI hopes that winners accept their awards as a symbol of immense gratitude for their excellent contributions and helping MDPI remain the number one Open Access publisher.
If you are interested in applying, or nominating somebody, for an MDPI award, please visit the MDPI awards page for more information.
Alternatively, details about a specific journal’s awards can be found under the ‘Journal Awards’ section on its journal menu. Click here for the full list of MDPI journals.
