Announcements

Master’s dissertation prize 2026

The Manchester Jean Monnet Centre of Excellence (MJMCE) is inviting nominations to the MJMCE Master’s Dissertation Prize 2026 for works relating to European politics, history, culture, languages, law, international relations, and art – or to politics, society, history, culture, languages, law and art in Europe. The Master’s Dissertation Prize celebrates and promotes the insights of independent research in European Studies (as conceived above) at Master’s level.

The Manchester JMCE is a partnership between the University of Manchester, Manchester Metropolitan University and the Europe and the World Centre at the University of Liverpool. We strive to strengthen the intellectual community in European Studies and to facilitate local and regional links with practitioners, researchers, students and others interested in European affairs.

The prize includes a £100 Blackwell’s book voucher.

Eligibility

The MJMCE will only consider nominations of students enrolled in Postgraduate Taught degrees based at one of its partner institutions: the University of Manchester (based within SoSS, SALC or AMBS); Manchester Metropolitan University (based within the Faculty of Arts and Humanities); and the University of Liverpool (based within the Department of Politics).

The dissertation must have been submitted for examination before the prize deadline.

Nomination

Nominations may be submitted either by the student themselves (self-nomination) or by the dissertation supervisor. To nominate a Master’s Dissertation for consideration, please submit the complete dissertation together with a supporting statement written by the supervisor, of max 300 words, to Dr Davide Schmid (d.schmid@mmu.ac.uk) with the email heading ‘MJMCE Master’s Dissertation Prize’. The supporting statement can be based on the dissertation feedback, if this is available.

Please include in the nomination a non-university email address for the nominated student which we can use to get in contact in the future, as university email addresses are likely to expire around the time of graduation.

Deadline

The deadline for receipt of submissions is Friday the 11th of December 2026.

Evaluation

All dissertations will be evaluated by a subcommittee of the MJMCE after the deadline, with consideration given to the following features:

• Significant and original contribution to knowledge
• Engagement with existing research
• Appropriateness of the structure and design
• Clarity of writing

The MJMCE reserves the right to not award the prize.

Other requirements

The winner will be asked to submit a brief quotation of up to 150 words, which will be uploaded to the MJMCE website and may be used for promotional purposes. The quotation should state why you wrote about your chosen topic, summarise the topic explored, and explain the contribution of the dissertation to knowledge. We will be grateful if you can include with the quotation a photo of yourself, but we understand if you would prefer not to.

Further information

Queries about the prize should be directed to the Chair of the evaluation committee, Dr Davide Schmid (d.schmid@mmu.ac.uk)

Seminar: The geopolitics of the EU’s clean transition