Statement from the President of ICCEES, Georges Mink, on the granting of the first ICCEES Award for International Cooperation:

This is the first time that the ICCEES Jury has awarded this prize. We have decided to perpetuate this award, which is emblematic of ICCEES’ function of bringing together scientists from different countries with the aim of advancing knowledge of Russia and Central and Eastern Europe, as well as Asia, and in the exchange of this knowledge. Conceived in a pre-Covid-19 period, to reward a project of international cooperation, in the spirit of exchange and transfer of knowledge across physical, political or ideological borders, this prize has gained further symbolic importance over time in the light of the health risks linked to the circulation of coronavirus. It comes at the right time to encourage multinational scientific networks to maintain cooperation at all costs, even if this means inventing new methods of contact and exchange.
The robustness and the scale of the project that we have distinguished today by this prize have convinced the Jury.
I congratulate the winners on behalf of the ICCEES governing bodies.
I hope that this prize will further encourage the work and exchanges of this network.

President of ICCEES
Georges Mink


Announcement by the Chair of the ICCEES Award Jury:

The Jury established by the Executive Committee of ICCEES was unanimous in its decision to grant the inaugural ICCEES Award for International Cooperation to the Annual Tartu Conference on Russian and East European Studies. We pass on our sincerest congratulations to the conference’s organisers at the Johan Skytte Institute of Political Studies, University of Tartu, Estonia, to their international collaborators, and to the former conference participants from around the world. After only four years, this conference has become established as a key part of the annual academic calendar.
We received eleven excellent nominations, all of which are contributing to the international diffusion of knowledge and cooperation between institutions and individuals from the former Soviet Union, Asia, Europe, and North America. While it was difficult to single out just one of these networks, we felt the network created around the Tartu Conference has been truly global.
Nominations were submitted and the jury had carried out most of its deliberations before we were struck by the global coronavirus crisis. Sadly, like numerous other events, the 2020 Tartu Conference was cancelled, but we look forward to the 2021 version, whatever format it takes. In announcing the opening of the competition for the second ICCEES Award for International Cooperation for 2021, we hope to acknowledge in particular the importance that virtual international networks play in the current situation, and will be paying attention to the ways existing networks have adapted and new forms of cooperation have been established.

Chair of the ICCEES Jury: Jeremy Smith
Jury members: Ayse Ayata (Middle East Technical University, Turkey); Kimitaka Matsuzato (University of Tokyo, Japan); Megan Swift (University of Victoria, Canada)