Call for nominations open from 1st March to 30th May each year
The European Community Psychology Association (ECPA) confers awards in the following categories:
- The ECPA Lifetime Career Award: The Award is to honour individuals with outstanding, long-term scientific contribution to community psychology theory, research, and practice.
- The ECPA Early Career Award: This award will recognise individuals for their significant contribution(s) to the field of community psychology and who are within ten years of their last degree.
- The ECPA Contribution to Practice Award: The award is presented to honour individuals, groups, or organisations that have made significant contributions to the field of community psychology. It recognises bodies of work that demonstrate high-quality and innovative applications of community psychological principles, resulting in meaningful impacts on the communities served.
- The ECPA Best Doctoral Thesis Award: This Award is to identify the best doctoral thesis on a topic relevant to the field of community psychology completed during the prior two years. The completion date for the dissertation refers to the graduation date. We might consider accepting dissertations in languages other than English, depending on our capacity. Please get in touch with us first to discuss this.
- The ECPA Master Thesis Award: This award is to identify the best master’s thesis in the field of community psychology completed during the previous year. The completion date for the thesis refers to the graduation date. We might consider accepting dissertations in languages other than English, depending on our capacity. Please get in touch with us first to discuss this. For 2025, ECPA will provide 200 euros to the winner.
Procedure rules
- The awards are awarded annually.
- Nominations are considered only from ECPA members, except for the Master Thesis Award.
- Nominations and self-nominations are both accepted.
- Past winners cannot be nominated for the same category of award.
- All nominations should be sent as email attachments to the ECPA Board by the deadline (May 30th) at ecpa.psychassociation@gmail.com.
- Applications for Lifetime Career Award, Early Career Award, and Contribution to Practice Award should include:
- The nominee CV
- 1-2 pages letter describing the nominee’s work and why they are worthy of recognition.
- Details of the proposer (when applicable) and nominee’s personal data (names, address, and e-mails).
- It is strongly recommended to accompany the submission with supporting documents, including the nominee’s published papers, book chapters, and/or other relevant outputs.
- For the Doctoral Thesis Award, please submit:
- The doctoral thesis in its original form
- A document (in english, max. 4,000 words) including: an abstract (~300 words); state of the art; methodology; results; discussion; conclusions.
- CV and brief presentation of the applicant (~300 words).
- For the Master Thesis Award, please submit:
- The master thesis in its original form
- A document (in english, max. 2,000 words) including: an abstract (~300 words); state of the art; methodology; results; discussion; conclusions.
- CV and brief presentation of the applicant (~300 words).
- Each award is accompanied by the Award Certificate and the announcement of the award on our social media platforms/newsletter. More benefits for the winners include: free ECPA membership for 1 year; free registration for the ECPA conference (if taking place during the next year); public announcement of the nomination at the ECPA conference.
- The prizes will be awarded by a Committee that includes one member from the ECPA Board and at least two invited external experts.
ECPA Awards 2024
The ECPA Contribution to Practice Award was awarded to Serdar Değirmencioğlu
As stated by the nominator, Dr. David Fryer, and demonstrated in the application, Dr. Serdar Değirmencioğlu “has made – and continues to make – outstanding contributions to the field of community psychology through development and implementation of practices” having significant impacts on local, distal and virtual communities. He has also played a crucial role as a community activist, advocating for peace and social justice, often at great personal cost.
The ECPA team firmly believes that Dr. Serdar Değirmencioğlu is highly deserving of the Practice Award, and we extend our heartfelt congratulations on this achievement.
No other awards were awarded in 2024.
ECPA Awards 2023
The ECPA Lifetime Career Award 2023 was awarded to David Fryer.
Read more about his work and contributions to Community Psychology here.
The ECPA Best Doctoral Thesis Award 2023 was awarded to Flora Gatti.
Flora Gatti has been awarded the best doctoral thesis award for 2022 for her dissertation “Citizens’ Self-in-Community and Ubiquitous Social Media Use: Disentangling Modern Local Community Experience”. Flora Gatti, defended her dissertation on June 2021 obtaining her Ph.D. in Mind, Gender and Languages at the Department of Humanities, University of Naples Federico II under the supervision of prof. Fortuna Procentese. Her thesis explores how ubiquitous social media play a role in local social capital, sense of place and sense of community going beyond simplified and dichotomous analysis and understanding. The thesis provides empirical suggestions for designing new technologies aimed at social and urban reconnection.
The ECPA Contribution to Practice Award 2023 was awarded to Patrizia Meringolo.
Patrizia Meringolo has been awarded the Contribution to Practice Award for her contribution to LabCom for its development of Community Psychology practice and its capacity to involve local actors and stakeholders. LabCom as a Spin-off of the University of Florence represents a concrete application of how research can be translated into practice, maintaining the connection between research and intervention.
ECPA decided to assign the Contribution to Practice Award ex aequo also to Radosveta Dimitrova for her work on Roma adolescents: even if her work is strongly rooted in developmental psychology and builds on PYD, it has strong connections with Community Psychology, a relevant emphasis on issues of social justice and significant implications for practice.
ECPA Awards 2022
The ECPA Lifetime Career Award 2022 was assigned to Caterina Arcidiacono.
Read more about her work and contributions to Community Psychology here.
The ECPA Best Doctoral Thesis Award 2022 was assigned to Marta Gaboardi.
Marta Gaboardi has been awarded the best doctoral thesis award for 2022 for her dissertation “Working with people experiencing homelessness, completed under the supervision of Professor Santinello. Marta Gaboardi has done outstanding work, as her thesis develops the issue of homelessness in an original way with reference to (a) theoretical perspective – ecological approach (b) intervention programme – HousingFirst (HF) (c) point of view – service providers and not only homeless people. The candidate shows mastery in the use of different tools used to collect data, with an innovative approach using photovoice in cross-cultural research, and offers robust and mature insights on the practical implications of the research and its future directions.
Visit her profile here.
ECPA Awards 2021
The ECPA Lifetime Career Award 2021 was assigned to Josè Ornelas.
Read more about his work and contributions to Community Psychology here.
The ECPA Best Doctoral Thesis Award 2021 was assigned to Francesca Esposito
She discussed a dissertation entitled Life and Lived Experiences of People inside Migration-related Detention: An Ecological Exploration into Rome’s Detention Center. The dissertation addresses a critical and contemporary issue in Europe and beyond and offers important contributions to Community Psychology. It was also particularly valued the courage to research this topic in such a challenging setting, following community psychology approaches and methods. The dissertation is an example of outstanding community psychology work and as such, it deserves the award.
Visit her profile here.