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Professor Biermann is awarded the Research Prize 2011 of the VU Faculty of Social Sciences.

The Jury awarded Biermann the Social Science Research Prize 2011 for his outstanding qualities as a top researcher, both for his scientific work as well as for his skill in securing external research funds.

Biermann's recent theoretical development and elaboration of the concept of “Earth System Governance” is particularly significant, according to the Jury.

In the recent years, a worldwide research network has been developed around the subject of Earth System Governance, resulting in the organization of important international conferences in Colorado (2011), Lund (2012) and Tokyo (2013). The concept of Earth System Governance has had impact on a great variety of research projects, dealing, for example, with management of river basins in Hungary, with deforestation in Brazil and with the adaptation of climate policy in Australia.

The Jury concluded that Biermann has made a significant contribution to international research and political debates in the field of global environmental politics, and by doing so, also raised the international profile of the VU University.

Professor Biermann is head of the Department of Environmental Policy Analysis at the Institute for Environmental Studies, and research leader at the Amsterdam Global Change Institute.