Research awards 2026

The 2026 4iP Council Research Award is an international research competition for European University students studying at Master's and PhD levels.

The competition aims to foster students' interests, and validate new ideas on key topics related to the interplay between intellectual property rights and innovation, such as patents and competition regulation, trade and regulation, computer implemented inventions, patent litigation and patent quality, standardisation and patents, NFTs and copyright, counterfeit and design rights, etc.

Students are invited to submit papers for review by 4iP Council’s Research Award Jury of intellectual property experts from academia, government and industry. Winning publications will be published on 4iP Council’s website and promoted for third party review and publication.

The following cash prizes should be given to the winner and runners-up:

First place €2000
Second place €1500
Third place €1000

The Jury might decide not to award any of the submitted papers if none of them are considered suitable enough following the Selection Criteria explained below, or to grant more than three awards if the quality of the papers justifies this. The same will apply to the runners-up papers.

Participation

All current postgraduate students will be eligible for the 4iP Council Research Award.

Research topics are not limited to any type of IPRs.
It is recommended that entrant research should address one or more of the following policy areas:

Patent and competition law
Technology and technology policy regulation
Knowledge transfer
Research and development policy
Industrial organisation and management
IP and Trade
Open source
The interplay between patent law and policy
Investment and funding
SME businesses and start-ups
The role of IP in innovation
The Non-EU IP landscape
IP and fiscal policy
Artificial intelligence in IP
Standardisation

Requirements

Only unpublished papers will be eligible for an award.
All papers should be in English.
Papers should meet a word limit of 4,000-6,000 (including footnotes) and should be accompanied by a brief summary that should not exceed 1,000 words. Please follow the Guidelines for papers.
If the submitted paper reflects the outcome of a Masters thesis, which has already been accepted by the entrant’s university, the university must give express consent to 4iP Council to publish the summary.
One co-author maximum is permitted. The cash prize is awarded per paper.
Each entrant may submit only one research paper. Multiple submissions will not be accepted.
Entries submitted after the submission deadline will not be considered.

Submission must-have requirements

Entries should be submitted by email to info@4ipcouncil.com

Papers and summaries should be in the same Word document without any reference to the author(s) or her/his university.

Proof that the entrant is studying - A certificate of enrolment from the year of submission is required. This should include details of the university and course.

Code of Conduct of artificial intelligence - The entrant must provide a note certifying that:

AI tools may have been used only for:

Editing: Improving the grammar, structure, or clarity of the writing.
Research: Gathering background information, locating sources, or conducting data analysis.

No AI tools have been used to:

Write, generate, or compose significant portions of the submission.

Submission nice-to-have requirement

It is recommended that the entrant’s Master and/or PhD supervisor endorses the submission by providing a signed note.

Selection criteria

4iP Council’s aim is to further the understanding of IP related topics in Europe through high quality, empirical research. Our jury, composed by members of 4iP Council and its Advisory Committee, will therefore evaluate the papers and select the winners at its full discretion, considering in particular:

Original thinking that broadens the debate on the chosen topic
Evidence based arguments and empirically sound data
High quality written expression
Relevance to current IP problems and debate

Timeline

Submission deadline for the next awards: 31 December 2026.
Winner and runner-up announcements: early 2027.

Rights

By submitting their papers, entrants grant to 4iP Council the right to publish and reproduce their texts. Winning entrants also grant to 4iP Council the right to use their names, affiliations and images in connection with this Award. No fee will be payable for this use. Entrants also declare that their texts are their original work and that they do not, to the best of their knowledge, contain anything that is libellous, illegal or that infringes anyone’s copyright or other rights.