Christiaan de Beukelaar, 26 years old from Belgium, studying at University of Leeds (UK), is the winner of the 9^th Cultural Policy Research Award 2012 (CPRA). He received the Award, worth 10,000 EUR for the best innovative research proposal in applied, comparative, cross-cultural research in Europe. This Award will help the winner to carry out his or her research proposal and publish their findings.

The name of the winner was unveiled during the 9^th CPRA Ceremony held on the evening 12 September at Goldsmiths, University of London. This high level Award Ceremony was attended by over 180 academics, researchers, professionals from the cultural and educational sector, organizations, students, policy makers, artists and media from more than 35 countries to support excellence in cultural policy research.

Selected amongst 24 high-quality applications from 12 countries of the wider European continent, Christiaan de Beukelaer convinced the international jury panel with a research project which sets out to ‘Developing Culture and Culturing Development: A critical analysis of the link between cultural industries and sustainable human development in the Global South.

“We found Christaan de Beukelaer’s research very innovative. We value his capacity of breaking with conventions without overlooking the traditional research elements”, said the CPRA Jury President, Lluís Bonet (University of Barcelona, Spain).

”I feel extremely honoured. This is such an important award in the cultural policy research field. I see this as a sign of recognition that exceeds my expectation and I look forward to contributing my research to the sector”, said the winner of this year’s Award, Christaan de Beukelaer.

Along side the Award winner, the five other shortlisted candidates in the running for the 10,000 EUR Award were: Francesca Cominelli (Italy), Deniz Ikiz (Turkey), Matina Magkou (Greece), Arne Saeys (Belgium), and Sigrid van der Auwera (Belgium). Their research proposals covered topics as varied as cultural heritage, artistic mobility, cultural development and European cinema.