Sustainability Award - Prize for creating a trophy | Prize sculpture

Deadline: Friday, Dec 26, 2025, 11:00am

The Federal Ministry for Women, Science and Research (BMFWF), the Federal Ministry of Agriculture and Forestry, Climate and Environmental Protection, Regions and Water Management (BMLUK) and the Academy of Fine Arts Vienna are awarding a prize in 2026 for the creation of a trophy | prize sculpture in four copies for the Sustainability Award. This award is bestowed upon Austrian universities that have excellently implemented the principles of sustainable development in their institutions and processes. The Sustainability Award is awarded every two years as part of a nationwide competition in four categories: Teaching, Research, Embedding, and Cooperation.

Starting in 2026, a new trophy is to be designed that represents a contemporary understanding of the principles of sustainable development as well as sustainable initiatives in higher education. It should also be replicable in multiple copies in the coming years (max. ten).

Award

The prize includes a monetary award of 3,000 Euro as well as compensation for material costs of up to 2,000 Euro, provided by the BMFWF.

Application Deadline

22.10.2025 – 26.01.2026 | 11:00 a.m.

An application is only possible via https://calls.akbild.ac.at/. To use our submission system https://calls.akbild.ac.at/, you must register once (if you are not registered yet) - please use your @student.akbild.ac.at address to identify yourself as a student.

Conditions

All regular students of the Academy of Fine Arts Vienna are eligible to apply.

Requirements for the trophy:

Exclusive design for the Sustainability Award
Must be suitable for for proper handling of the trophy in an award ceremony, as well as displaying it in appropriate display cases
Simple reproducibility for further awards in subsequent years
Guaranteed availability of production materials and production itself
Use of sustainable materials, considering the entire product life cycle (e.g., source materials, recyclability)
Must allow for the attachment of a plaque or similar with the name of the award and year (presumably “Sustainability Award 2026”), as well as the name of the artist
The trophy should be clearly recognizable in photographs and reflect the conceptual idea

The winner of the competition agrees to begin production of the trophy immediately upon notification and to provide four trophies by May 8^th, 2026, at the latest.

The designer is responsible for the production of the trophy, although they are not required to handle the manufacturing personally.

Participants are free to submit more than one proposal for a feasible trophy. A maximum of three designs can be uploaded to the submission platform. The files must be clearly labeled as "Draft_1", "Draft_2", and "Draft_3".

The person who wins the competition transfers the right to produce the selected trophy for future Sustainability Awards to the BMFWF and the BMLUK.

Submission Documents

A draft in the form of a sketch, photo montage, model, or rendering, etc., in JPEG or PDF format (max. 10 MB)
Object description including details of the materials to be used, surface finishes, weight, size, manufacturing method, and possible manufacturers (length: max. one A4 page in PDF format)
Timeline and cost overview, including all costs to produce four trophies:
- Timeline from design to finished trophy. The production time must not exceed eight weeks.
- A clear cost calculation to produce four trophies, with a total cost of no more than 2,000 Euro
- Breakdown of material and manufacturing costs
Curriculum vitae (max. one A4 page)
Confirmation of enrollment

Only applications with complete information and documents that conform to the criteria listed above can be considered. Please keep in mind that the deadlines must be strictly adhered to; applications that are submitted too late or incomplete cannot be considered at all.

For any inquiries regarding the trophy competition, please contact akademiestipendien@akbild.ac.at

You can find further details on www.nachhaltige-uni.at. For any content-related inquiries regarding the Sustainability Award, please contact anna.sorger-domenigg@bmfwf.gv.at, or susanne.buck@bmfwf.gv.at

For further information please contact Vizerektorat Kunst | Lehre (akademiestipendien@akbild.ac.at, 000)

submission form

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