Details
- One-year Fellowship Programme with scientific support
- Exchange with European partner organisations and mentors
- Annual Summit in Aachen for dialog with decision-makers
- Research grant of up to € 25,000
- The Academy connects young talents with leading players to develop innovative ideas for the future of Europe.
As a contribution to European integration and for the exchange of the young generation in Europe, the Charlemagne Prize Academy aims to identify future challenges and problems of European society and, by awarding research fellowships annually, to develop approaches to solutions at an early stage, which are discussed in dialogue with representatives from science, politics, business, and the public to determine their feasibility and practicability.
The Charlemagne Prize Fellowship is an endowed one-year non-resident programme of the European Charlemagne Prize Academy, addressing European junior researchers, next-generation policy experts, innovators, and thought leaders that work toward a better European Union.
The Fellowship includes a stipend of up to € 25,000 per research project. With the grant, our Fellows are offered the opportunity to conduct an independent research project individually or in a group. We highly encourage applicants to look for a suitable host institution that could provide a work place and research facilities at the preferred location during the Fellowship. In addition, the Fellow can choose to implement their project with the help of a self-selected mentor. During the Fellowship Programme, the Fellows are able to travel and network with experts and international and European decision-makers, and to present the research results in the final annual publication as well as in front of a large audience at the concluding conference summit. A unique aspect of the Fellowship is the connection with former Charlemagne Prize Laureates and the participation at the Charlemagne Prize award ceremony in Aachen in spring.
Timetable
Who are we looking for?
We look for projects and research questions that go beyond mainstream issues. These projects explore visionary ideas, analyse emerging developments, and offer solutions to current and future challenges.
Our Annual Focus Topic 2026/2027
Debugging Europe – Building Capability in an Unfamiliar World
The postwar settlement gave Europe something rare in history: decades of relative stability, growing prosperity, and deepening integration. For a long time, the future felt like a continuation of the present, even a little better, a little more connected, steadily more sustainable. That sense of continuity, of comfort, was not complacency. It was earned. And it is also over.
The overlapping shocks of the past years have not simply interrupted a trend but they have exposed the limits of systems designed for a more predictable world. Supply chains built for efficiency, not robustness. Institutions designed for consensus, not speed. Societies structured around stability, not adaptive capacity. When the unexpected became routine, Europe discovered that comfort had quietly replaced capability.
Debugging Europe takes this transition seriously. Borrowed from the world of software, debugging means identifying hidden flaws, faulty assumptions, and outdated operating logic that prevent a system from performing as intended. In the European context, this does not refer to any single policy area. It encompasses governance and institutional design, innovation systems, economic and social structures, technological and energy infrastructures, and the broader frameworks through which Europe understands and responds to change.
Debugging Europe therefore views the end of comfort not as a loss to mourn, but as a critical design challenge. The question for this research year is not how Europe recovers what it had, but what it builds next with a clear-eyed understanding of the world it is actually operating in.
For the research year 2026/27, the Charlemagne Prize Academy invites applications from young researchers and professionals across all fields and disciplines to submit diverse and imaginative project proposals that offer concrete, actionable solutions for the Europe of tomorrow. We are looking for proposals that identify where Europe’s operating logic needs not just repair, but rethinking: in its governance architectures, its innovation ecosystems, its social contracts, its energy and technology infrastructure, its role in a shifting geopolitical order, and beyond.
The thematic scope of this call is intentionally broad. We welcome perspectives from all academic disciplines and professional backgrounds. What matters is not the field from which a proposal originates, but the clarity of the problem it seeks to address and the quality of the solution it seeks to develop. The strongest applications will focus on a specific challenge rather than a general diagnosis, using that challenge as a lens through which to contribute to Europe's broader capacity to act in an unfamiliar world.
We explicitly welcome innovative methodologies and interdisciplinary approaches that push beyond the conventions of traditional academic research. At the same time, we are not primarily looking for descriptive analyses of the status quo or broad theoretical reflections. We are particularly interested in projects that move from insight to implementation and produce tangible, applicable outcomes. Exceptional proposals will combine intellectual ambition with practical relevance. They will identify a clearly defined problem, develop a novel approach to addressing it, and generate outcomes that extend beyond the research year itself.
The gap between thinking and building is one of the default settings Europe most urgently needs to rewrite.
Application Process
We highly encourage graduates from all academic fields, young professionals, and employees of scientific, political or public institutions and organisations to hand in their research ideas for the research year. The application period will run from 22 June to 31 July 2026.
You will need to upload the following documents in English:
- Your CV (pdf) - mandatory
- Your Research Proposal (pdf) - mandatory
- Supporting documents, references, and certificates (as one pdf file) - optional
Your Research Proposal should include:
- A maximum amount of 6,000 characters (max. 2 pages)
- The research question and a brief description of your research idea (based on our annual focus topic)
- Your motivation to research on this particular topic and its social/political relevance
- First ideas about your personal timeline and possible milestones you want to achieve during the Fellowship Programme
- A first description for which audience groups (outside of academia) your research could be of special interest
- A short explanation of what makes your research question unique and progressive in shaping Europe’s future
Selection Process
After submitting your application, you will receive a confirmation e-mail.
All applications are then checked for completeness and fulfilment of all application criteria before they will be analysed by our high-level and diverse selection committee. Shortlisted candidates will be invited to short (approx. 10-15 minutes) online interviews in September.
The final decision will be made by the Foundation Board in October. Subsequently, all applicants will be informed about the final decision.
If selected, the grant agreement and mentoring contract will be drawn up and signed before the official stipend award ceremony will take place in November.
With accepting the Fellowship contract, the Fellow will agree:
- to fulfil individually appointed milestones as part of the research progress (surveys, workshops, articles…).
- to attend the kick-off event and the concluding Summit in autumn each year.
- to cooperate with academic mentors and the Charlemagne Prize Foundation.
- that the individual research outcomes will be published during and after the research process.
FAQs
Application
Uploads
Interviews and Selection
Programme Schedule
If you have any further questions, please do not hesitate to contact us via
academy@karlspreis.de.