The Austrian Bankers’ Association awards the above prize, totalling EUR 15,000, for excellent research papers contributing towards the promotion of the Austrian banking industry and focusing on matters of business and banking law.

It is intended to support papers by young researchers addressing bank-related topics, in particular in the field of company law, capital market law, banking law, tax law or economics.

Conditions of participation

1. Applicants must be under 40 years of age.

2. The research paper must have been written within the framework of a university study programme, postdoctoral qualification or a research project at an Austrian university or university of applied sciences or other Austrian research entity, or its topic must relate to specific questions of Austrian law and economics. Primarily postdoctoral, doctoral, diploma and master theses are eligible for this award.

3. The submitted paper (in duplicate: upon request also electronically) must be submitted in print or typewritten. If it has already been published, its publication must not date back more than one year prior to application. The paper must be submitted to the Austrian Bankers’ Association, 1010 Vienna, Börsegasse 11, in a sealed envelope no later than

31 January 2016

Earlier submissions are welcome. This deadline may be extended by the Presidium of the Association.

A brief CV of the author as well as any expert opinions written for the purpose of appraising the author’s paper are to be enclosed. The entire application will be kept confidential. The Association is under no obligation to return the submitted papers to applicants.

If the submitted papers have already been sent to other institutions that provide prizes, or have already been awarded a prize, applicants must inform the Association without delay or, where applicable, say so in their letter of application.

4. The prize is awarded by a jury of the Bankers’ Association, which may consult recognised experts before taking a decision. In the case of papers of equivalent quality, preference is to be given to the one with a more practical approach.

5. The jury has the right to share the prize among several authors; it may also waive awarding the prize if it finds that none of the submitted papers merits it.

6. Jury decisions are taken by a simple majority of votes. Decisions are final and may not be challenged, in particular they may not be challenged in court.

7. Participants agree that, provided they win the prize of the Austrian Bankers’ Association for research papers in the field of business and banking law, they will not initiate or make any press releases which fail to include all the prize-winners as are mentioned in the Annual Report of the Bankers’ Association.

8. The Austrian Bankers’ Association is entitled to publish the papers of the prize-winners in whole or in part (preferably in the members only section of its website) and invite prize-winners to make a presentation on the topic of their paper.