Mzia Mikeladze PhD Thesis Award
2. Description of the award
The PhD Thesis Award is a recognition which is announced and presented during the annual NISPAcee conference. It comprises a certificate, together with a waiver of NISPAcee conference fees for three consecutive years. The recipient of the award is also invited to present his/her PhD thesis at the annual conference. The recipient of the award also has the possibility to publish an overview of the dissertation in the NISPAcee journal.
3. Submission process
The award is announced to NISPAcee members on the NISPAcee website. Nominations have to be submitted by 1st December of any given year. Nominations can be made by the institution where the thesis has been defended. Each institution can submit one nomination. Nominations should be sent to e-mail: nispa@nispa.org
4. Award Committee
The award committee will be appointed by the NISPAcee Steering Committee for a three-year term. The committee comprises a Chair and two additional members.
5.Eligibility criteria for "PhD Thesis Award" nominations
(a) Nominations can be made by the NISPAcee member institution where the thesis has been defended.
(b) The PhD thesis should have been defended during the 18 months prior to the nomination deadline.
(c) Eligible for the award would be: 1) monographs written in English; 2) cumulative theses written in English; 3) theses written in mother tongue with the condition that at least part of the thesis has been published in an international peer-reviewed journal.
6. Documents to be submitted with the nomination
(a) An overview of the thesis in English. The overview should be 4000-5000 words and describe the work done (research questions, theoretical basis, findings, implications).
(b) A letter of recommendation from the institution.
(c) The nominee’s CV.
(d) Indication of whether – and if so, when and in what form the dissertation or parts thereof have already been published.
(e) A copy of the PhD diploma.
7. Criteria for selection
(a) Contribution (theoretical, methodological, practice-related) to public administration and public policy.
(b) Innovativeness of the work.
(c) Theoretical soundness and appropriate research strategy.
(d) Relevance of the conducted research for the NISPAcee region (theoretical and/or practical).
8. Announcement of the award
The committee’s recommendation is announced to the NISPAcee Steering Committee and the Chair of the committee announces the decision to the candidate. The Chair of the committee announces the award, the rationale of the selection and the laudation during the opening ceremony of the NISPAcee conference.
AWARD 2022
Ionut Baciu, Babes-Bolyai University, Cluj-Napoca, RomaniaTopic of his PhD theses: Between politics, policies and (case)law: the place of public procurement on the map of the EU’s internal market.
Zoltán Török, Corvinus University of Budapest, Budapest, Hungary PhD thesis:
Petra Đurman, Faculty of Law, University of Zagreb, Zagreb, Croatia
Jelizaveta Krenjova-Cepilova, e-Governance Academy, Tallinn, Estonia PhD thesis:
Petr Witz, Technical University of Denmark, Copenhagen, Denmark / PhD graduate from Charles University in Prague, Czech Republic PhD thesis:
Effective Governance for Public-Private Partnerships: Challenges and Solutions for existing Models
Piret Tõnurist, Tallinn University of Technology, Tallinn, EstoniEnergy Technology Innovation Systems in a Transnational Perspective: Small States, Public Ownership and Diverging Policy Rationales
Riin Savi, Tallinn University of Technology, Tallinn, Estonia
Jasmina Dzinic, Faculty of Law, University of Zagreb, Zagreb, Croatia, PhD thesis "Impact of quality improvement instruments on organizational learning in
administrative organizations".
Külli Sarapuu, Tallinn University of Technology, Estonia 
Jane Järvalt, Tallinn University of Technology, Estonia