Ruut Veenhoven Award 2023-2024

The award was created in 2014 in honor of Emeritus Professor Ruut Veenhoven (1942), a prominent researcher and one of the founders of the field of Happiness Studies. The prize carries an award of the equivalent of $500 plus a certificate of appreciation and 1-year ISQOLS membership. It is intended to award outstanding research in the field of Happiness Studies by a promising researcher; a researcher who has performed exceptional research and is just embarking on a research career (having obtained a doctorate within the last five to eight years).

The Ruut Veenhoven Award is an initiative of the Erasmus Happiness Economics Research Organization and restarting for the years 2023-2024, the prize will be presented at the Ruut Veenhoven Lecture at ISQOLS during the virtual conference in Winter 2024.

Goal, Procedure and Jury

• The Award recognizes annually a scholar (having obtained a doctorate within the last five to eight years) who has demonstrated innovation and excellence in Happiness Studies through the publication of a research paper or PhD thesis of outstanding quality. Research papers should have been accepted for publication in a peer reviewed international journal. However, no work should be submitted that has been published before 2012. The submission has to be accompanied by a CV and a summary of the submitted work in English (maximum of 2 pages).
• Scholars can maximally submit two research paper or chapters from their PhD thesis.
• Submissions are open to both ISQOLS and non-ISQOLS members.
• The jury will consist of a chairman and four full professors; they will be supported by a secretary and two advisors (who are not part of the jury).
• Knowledge of the intended recipient of the prize must be treated with confidentiality.
• The winner will hold as the annual Ruut Veenhoven lecture at the ISQOLS annual conference or at an online ISQOLS webinar.

Previous winners:

2015-2016: Dr. Jan-Emmanuel De Neve (University of Oxford). 

2016-2017: Dr. Louis Tay (Purdue University). 

2017-2018: Dr. Lara Aknin (Simon Fraser University)

2018-2019: Dr. Moshen Joshanloo (Keimyung University, South Korea)