Ruut Veenhoven Award  

The award was created in 2014 in honor of Emeritus Professor Ruut Veenhoven (1942-2024), a prominent researcher and one of the founders of the field of Happiness Studies ( Ruut Veenhoven (1942-2024): The Secret of a Happy and Productive Life | Applied Research in Quality of Life). The prize carries an award of the equivalent of $500 plus a certificate of appreciation and 1-year ISQOLS membership. It is intended to award outstanding research in the field of Happiness Studies by a promising researcher; a researcher who has performed exceptional research and is just embarking on a research career (having obtained a doctorate within the last five to eight years).

The Ruut Veenhoven Award is an initiative of the Erasmus Happiness Economics Research Organization and continuing for the years 2027-2028, the prize will be presented at one of ISQOLS’ conferences.

Goal, Procedure and Jury

• The Award recognizes annually a scholar (having obtained a doctorate within the last five to eight years) who has demonstrated innovation and excellence in Happiness Studies through the publication of a research paper or PhD thesis of outstanding quality. Research papers should have been accepted for publication in a peer reviewed international journal. However, no work should be submitted that has been published before 2017. The submission has to be accompanied by a CV and a summary of the submitted work in English (maximum of 2 pages).
• Scholars can maximally submit one research paper or chapters from their PhD thesis.
• Submissions are open to both ISQOLS and non-ISQOLS members.
• The jury will consist  of the ISQOLS Board; they will be supported by a secretary from EHERO (who is not part of the jury).
• Documents have to be submitted in electronic format (pdf) to veenhovenaward@ese.eur.nl before January 31, 2027.
• Knowledge of the intended recipient of the prize must be treated with confidentiality. Only winners will be notified.
• The winner will hold as the annual Ruut Veenhoven lecture at the ISQOLS annual conference or at an online ISQOLS webinar.

Previous winners:

2015-2016: Dr. Jan-Emmanuel De Neve (University of Oxford). 

2016-2017: Dr. Louis Tay (Purdue University). 

2017-2018: Dr. Lara Aknin (Simon Fraser University)

2018-2019: Dr. Moshen Joshanloo (Keimyung University, South Korea)