# Erasmus Prize

The Erasmus Prize is an annual prize awarded by the board of the Praemium Erasmianum Foundation to individuals or institutions that have made exceptional contributions to culture, society, or social science in Europe and the rest of the world. It is one of Europe's most distinguished recognitions. The prize is named after Desiderius Erasmus, the Dutch Renaissance humanist.

## Prize and adornment

As of 2024, the prize consists of €150,000 and an adornment that was designed by Bruno Ninaber van Eyben in 1995. The adornment is a ribbon folded in the style of a harmonica, with ends made of titanium plates. The ribbon bears a text in the handwriting of Erasmus taken from a letter to Jean Carondelet written on 5 January 1523. The text reads "variae sunt ingeniorum dotes multae seculorum varietates sunt. quod quisque potest in medium proferat nec alteri quisquam invideat qui pro sua virili suoque modo conatur publicis studiis utilitatis aliquid adiungere.", which translates as "Diverse are the gifts of men of genius and many are the different kinds of ages. Let each one reveal the scope of his competence and let no one be envious of another who in keeping with his own ability and style tries to make a useful contribution to the education of all."

## Ceremony

The award ceremony typically takes place at the Royal Palace of Amsterdam, where the prize is presented by the patron of the Foundation (His Majesty the King Willem-Alexander of the Netherlands as of 2015). A wide range of academic and cultural activities are organised around the Erasmus Prize award ceremony, in cooperation with other academic and cultural organisations. These have included lectures, conferences, workshops, exhibitions, performances of dance, music and theatre, and other educational activities. An essay on the topic of the laureate and their work is also published.
The prize was first awarded in 1958. As of 2015 it has been awarded a total of 73 times in 53 years. The area in which the Erasmus prize will be awarded is decided upon in advance by the Foundation's board. An advisory committee then consults with Dutch and foreign experts before proposing a laureate; the final choice of the laureate is then made by the Foundation's board. In 2015, Wikipedia editors received the Erasmus Prize—under the theme 'Digital Culture'. According to the Foundation, Wikipedia: "has promoted the dissemination of knowledge through a comprehensive and universally acceptable encyclopedia available to everybody". Three young representatives of the Wikipedia Community received the Erasmus Prize, each of them represented new initiatives within Wikipedia.

## Young researchers

The Erasmus prize is not intended to stimulate young researchers. However, the Praemium Erasmianum Foundation has awarded from 1988 yearly "Research Prizes" for exceptionally high quality PhD studies on the field of Law, Humanities, Social sciences.

## Prize winners

| Year | Winner | Notes |
| 1958 | The People of Austria | Cultural heritage. Awarded at the University of Milan. Prize funds were granted to Austrians studying in Europe; foreign students studying in Austria; and excavations at Ephesus. |
| 1959 | Robert Schuman | |
| 1959 | Karl Jaspers | |
| 1960 | Marc Chagall | |
| 1960 | Oskar Kokoschka | |
| 1962 | Romano Guardini | |
| 1963 | Martin Buber | |
| 1964 | Union Académique Internationale | |
| 1965 | Sir Charles Chaplin, Ingmar Bergman | |
| 1966 | Herbert Read, René Huyghe | |
| 1967 | Jan Tinbergen | |
| 1968 | Henry Moore | |
| 1969 | Gabriel Marcel, Carl Friedrich von Weizsäcker | |
| 1970 | Hans Scharoun | |
| 1971 | Olivier Messiaen | |
| 1972 | Jean Piaget | |
| 1973 | Claude Lévi-Strauss | |
| 1974 | Ninette de Valois, Maurice Béjart | |
| 1975 | Ernst Gombrich, Willem Sandberg | |
| 1976 | Amnesty International, René David | |
| 1977 | Werner Kaegi, Jean Monnet | |
| 1978 | Puppet Theatre/Theme puppetry: La Marionettistica of the Napoli brothers Ţăndărică of Margareta Niculescu Théâtre de papier of Yves Joly Bread and Puppet of Peter Schumann | |
| 1979 | Die Zeit, Neue Zürcher Zeitung | |
| 1980 | Nikolaus Harnoncourt, Gustav Leonhardt | |
| 1981 | Jean Prouvé | |
| 1982 | Edward Schillebeeckx | |
| 1983 | Raymond Aron, Isaiah Berlin, Leszek Kołakowski, Marguerite Yourcenar | |
| 1984 | Massimo Pallottino | |
| 1985 | Paul Delouvrier | |
| 1986 | Václav Havel | |
| 1987 | Alexander King | |
| 1988 | Jacques Ledoux | |
| 1989 | International Commission of Jurists | |
| 1990 | Grahame Clark | |
| 1991 | Bernard Haitink | |
| 1992 | General Archive of the Indies | |
| 1992 | Simon Wiesenthal | |
| 1993 | Peter Stein | |
| 1994 | Sigmar Polke | |
| 1995 | Renzo Piano | |
| 1996 | William Hardy McNeill | |
| 1997 | Jacques Delors | |
| 1998 | Mauricio Kagel, Peter Sellars | |
| 1999 | Mary Robinson | |
| 2000 | Hans van Manen | |
| 2001 | Claudio Magris, Adam Michnik | |
| 2002 | Bernd and Hilla Becher | |
| 2003 | Alan Davidson | |
| 2004 | Abdolkarim Soroush, Sadik Al-Azm and Fatema Mernissi | |
| 2005 | Simon Schaffer and Steven Shapin | |
| 2006 | Pierre Bernard | |
| 2007 | Péter Forgács | |
| 2008 | Ian Buruma | |
| 2009 | Antonio Cassese, Benjamin B. Ferencz | |
| 2010 | José Antonio Abreu | |
| 2011 | Joan Busquets | |
| 2012 | Daniel Dennett | |
| 2013 | Jürgen Habermas | |
| 2014 | Frie Leysen | Theme of "Theatre, audience and society" |
| 2015 | Wikipedia community | For "[promoting] the dissemination of knowledge through a comprehensive and universally accessible encyclopaedia. To achieve that, the initiators of Wikipedia have designed a new and effective democratic platform. The prize specifically recognises Wikipedia as a community—a shared project that involves tens of thousands of volunteers around the world." |
| 2016 | A. S. Byatt | For inspiring contribution to 'life writing' |
| 2017 | Michèle Lamont | "For her devoted contribution to social science research into the relationship between knowledge, power and diversity" |
| 2018 | Barbara Ehrenreich | For giving "a voice to groups in society that would otherwise remain unheard" |
| 2019 | John Adams | "Because he has created a new musical idiom by fusing elements from jazz, pop and classical music" |
| 2021 | Grayson Perry | "Perry has developed a unique visual language, demonstrating that art belongs to everybody and should not be an elitist affair." |
| 2022 | David Grossman | "He seeks to understand people from within, and to regard the other with love, across borders of war and history." |
| 2023 | Trevor Noah | "... for his inspired contribution to the theme 'In Praise of Folly,' named after Erasmus’s most famous book, which is filled with humour, social criticism and political satire. With his sharp-minded, mocking yet inclusive political comedy, Noah, in the eyes of the jury, upholds the 'Erasmian Spirit.'" |
| 2024 | Amitav Ghosh | "He receives the prize for his passionate contribution to the theme ‘imagining the unthinkable’, in which an unprecedented global crisis – climate change – takes shape through the written word. Ghosh has delved deeply into the question of how to do justice to this existential threat that defies our imagination. His work offers a remedy by making an uncertain future palpable through compelling stories about the past. He also wields his pen to show that the climate crisis is a cultural crisis that results from a dearth of the imagination." |