The ISSDP Excellence in Research Award is an annual recognition sponsored by the International Society for the Study of Drug Policy. First conferred in Leuven, Belgium, in 2023, the award aims to recognize a piece of research published in the past 3 years that has made a substantial innovation in how we think about or conduct research in the area of drug policy. Eligible topics include (but are not exclusively limited to) the methods and data used for conducting drug policy analysis, the theoretical models of or frameworks guiding work on the agents (consumers, suppliers, regulators) or systems (drug markets, health providers, criminal justice system, social services) that influence drug policy, and/or practical understanding of drug policy in the world today.
Award
The awardee/s will receive a formal certificate from the society, a monetary award of at least US $3000, an allowance to cover travel and conference costs, as well as the opportunity to give a 30-minute presentation at the annual ISSDP meeting (For 2025, this will be in Manchester, UK, on June 11 to 13). If the publication has multiple authors, they will have to choose one person to come to the meeting and accept the award
Eligibility criteria
- Any English-language research publication (article, book, or report), published in the past three years, is eligible for consideration. For 2025, the publication must have been published from January 2022 to December 2024.
- For the purposes of the award, “research” should be interpreted broadly and inclusively to refer to original and relevant scholarship in any subfield within the domain of drug policy, broadly construed. The award is open to both quantitative and qualitative research methods.
- The author/s of the nominated publication may or may not be an ISSDP member and will be considered regardless of their institutional affiliation or nationality.
Nominations
Anyone who wishes to nominate a paper for consideration (self-nominations are welcome) should send their nominations to Gideon Lasco (pdlasco@up.edu.ph) by March 31, 2025.
ISSDP will name an awards jury of five members from among its board members and drug policy scholars to evaluate the nominations. The decision of the committee will be relayed via email to the authors of the winning publication by April 15, and announced to the public during the annual ISSDP conference, both on-site and electronically.
