As a pioneering Open Access publisher, MDPI upholds its commitment to supporting its growing and vibrant scholarly community. Within this community, early career researchers (ECR) arguably benefit from this support the most.

For many ECRs, the first steps in their career can be accompanied with unique challenges. Often, they may struggle to establish visibility for their research, gain recognition for their contributions, and build professional networks.

Through its awards program, MDPI endeavours to provide accessible and effective avenues for recognition. Of these journal awards, three in particular were conceived with ECRs firmly in mind.

In this article, we explore MDPI’s ECR Awards, along with their unique eligibility requirements.

Best PhD Thesis Award

For PhD students, their completed PhD thesis represents the culmination of not only doctoral degree, but their entire academic training. In many ways, a PhD thesis signals the ending of one chapter – and the beginning of the next.

MDPI understands that celebrating the outstanding efforts of PhD students can be particularly helpful as they start their careers, as early acknowledgement of excellence can help boost visibility and drive professional momentum.

The MDPI Best PhD Thesis Award therefore celebrates outstanding PhD theses, providing a platform for individuals who have shown great potential to make significant contributions to their research field.

Selection criteria and eligibility requirements

The Best PhD Thesis Award serves to provide inspiration to those on the cusp of their professional career. The award’s eligibility requirements ensure that current or recently graduated PhD students are prioritised:

• 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.

During the application process, potential awardees must provide the following documents:

• An executive summary of the PhD thesis in English of around 3000 words;
• A letter from the PhD supervisor recommending the candidate for consideration for this award;
• The candidate’s CV, including a list of publications connected with the thesis;
• An electronic copy of the PhD thesis;
• A scanned copy of the PhD diploma (or certificate of studying at a school or research institute as a PhD student going to graduate or participate in graduation thesis defences).

You can find journal-specific information regarding selection criteria and eligibility on the Best PhD Thesis Award page, or on the respective journals’ homepages.

Young Investigator Award

Following on from its Best PhD Thesis Award, MDPI’s Young Investigator Award provides a further avenue for recognition.

MDPI’s Young Investigator Award celebrates those who have demonstrated scientific excellence in the early stages of their career and have made substantial contributions to their field.

Selection criteria and eligibility requirements

The Young Investigator Award is only awarded to academics in the early stages of their career.

In the case of this award, ‘early stages’ is satisfied by the candidate receiving their PhD in the preceding 10 years of their nomination. Therefore, we can understand that ‘young’ in the context of the award is relative to the individuals career, not necessarily their age.

Its full selection criteria includes:

• The candidate must have received their PhD no more than 10 years prior to nomination;
• They must have produced ground-breaking research and made a significant contribution to advancements in their subject area;
• Candidates must be nominated by senior scientists.

Nominations are made by senior scientists, allowing esteemed academics to exercise their expert judgment in selecting candidates. Within the nomination process, there are important documents which must be submitted. These include:

• A detailed curriculum vitae, including an updated publication list and a list of the researcher’s own research grants;
• A scanned copy of the nominees doctorate certificate;
• Signed nomination letters from two established senior scientists.

Upon their completion, all nominations are carefully considered by the relevant journal’s Awards Evaluation Committee.

You can find journal-specific information regarding selection criteria and eligibility on the MDPI Young Investigator Award page, or on the respective journals’ homepages.

Travel Award

The MDPI Travel Award was created to give scientists the opportunity to present their latest research at an academic conference of their choosing.

Face-to-face engagement remains essential for supporting the academic community in advancing research, publishing their work, and making meaningful contributions to science. In addition to being surrounded by tenured academics, presenting at conferences offers early career researchers feedback on their work and the opportunity to share their findings with peers.

The Travel Award works to remove the barriers preventing young scholars from attending conferences, including financial and geographical factors.

Selection criteria and eligibility requirements

The Travel Award’s eligibility requirements ensure that individuals at the start of their career are duly targeted.

Key requirements include:

• Recipient must be a postdoctoral fellows or PhD student;
• Plans to attend an international conference in the upcoming year.

During the application process, potential awardees must provide the following documents:

• Information of the conference the applicant is planning to attend and the abstract that will be submitted;
• Curriculum Vitae and list of publications;
• Justification letter describing the focus of the research;
• Letter of recommendation from the supervisor, research director, or department head, which also confirms the applicant’s status.

You can find journal-specific information regarding selection criteria and eligibility on the MDPI Travel Award page, or on the respective journals’ homepages.

Benefits and prizes

For those who are beginning to embark on their professional career, this recognition and encouragement of collaboration is often invaluable. In addition, MDPI’s awards present scholars with additional tangible prizes.

Generally, prizes for the awards discussed in this article can include:

• A monetary prize (often ranging from CHF 500 to 800)
• A certificate
• Waived or discounted article processing charges (APCs)

In the case of the Travel Award, its monetary prize seeks to alleviate financial burdens and presents winners with the opportunity to attend conferences which may have been otherwise restricted to them.

By providing APC waivers, MDPI hopes to encourage the continuation of their work through its global and freely accessible platform. Open Access provides many benefits for early career academics. For those eager to establish themselves within a field, increased research visibility and citations can prove particularly helpful.

Ultimately, the exact prizes and stipulations of these awards are decided by the journals themselves. Therefore, some prizes may be higher between journals, yet some journals may offer a higher volume of awards than others.

The specific details of each award can be found on the journal’s respective award page. You can access this via the journals homepage.

The full list of MDPI’s Open Access journals can be found here.

MDPI supports early career researchers through awards

Early career researchers are the future of science, so celebrating their achievements and encouraging their continued success is an integral part of MDPI’s ongoing mission to advance open science and foster meaningful scientific exchange.

In 2025 alone, the total prize sum of all MDPI’s journal awards surpassed 1.2 million Swiss francs. This number alone demonstrates MDPI’s commitment to delivering invaluable recognition for scholars.

Learn more about MDPI’s Awards program, exploring journal level and flagship awards.