Students receive DFK Award 2023

At the annual meeting of the “Deutscher Freundeskreis der Universitäten in Innsbruck e.V.” (DFK), the prestigious DFK Award (“DFK Förderpreis”) was awarded to students of the Entrepreneurial School^®, the Leopold-Franzens-University Innsbruck (LFU) and the Medical University of Innsbruck. From 31 entries, three MCI students stood out with their exceptional personal and academic achievements and ambitious goals and received the coveted award.

The winners:

Cristiana Dabija, bachelor's student of Business & Management, is interested in the start-up scene and the challenges young companies face, especially in her home country Romania. She will be addressing this topic in her bachelor's thesis, which is why she would like to use the DFK award to conduct research in this area on site.

Naila Eggerstorfer is a student of the master's program Food Technology & Nutrition and is planning an eight-month research stay at the National University of Singapore. Her master's thesis will focus on process optimization and functional foods. The DFK award will support her in gaining valuable research experience abroad to broaden her professional and personal horizons.

Sophie Fessel, student of the master's program Social Work, Social Policy & Management, will invest the award primarily in her master's thesis, which is about psychosocial counseling for people affected by poverty. She will use it to compensate interview partners and to finance a tool for transcribing and analyzing the interviews.

At the Leopold Franzens University of Innsbruck, the grants went to Julia Hackhofer, Joshua Makalintal and Paul Valentin Mayr. At the Medical University, Simon Leiter, Constanze Puschmann and Laura Sophie Zirch received the awards.

Clemens-August-Andreae-Prize

The Clemens August Andreae Award (CAA) was also awarded during the ceremony. The Clemens-August-Andreae-Prize 2023 is awarded to the best dissertation in economics approved at the University of Innsbruck since 2019 and to the best diploma or master's thesis in economics approved at an Innsbruck university since 2019. Due to the large number of submissions, the jury has decided to divide the prize for the best dissertation among three winners and the prize for the best master's or diploma thesis among two.

Paul Maximilian Nickisch, Graduate of the MCI master's program International Health & Social Management received the prestigious award for his master's thesis "Preferences of Medical Students for Rare Disease Treatments". At LFUI, Moritz Dauber received the prize for the best master's thesis. The prize for the best dissertation was shared by Alexandra Baier, Natalie Struwe and Rene Schwaiger.

The “Deutscher Freundeskreis” is an association of distinguished personalities from business, science, society, and politics. The DFK aims to provide non-material and material support for the universities in Innsbruck, including the MCI, and their students, to promote cooperation in partnership between these universities, to connect their graduates with the business community and to foster friendly relations between its members.