Roman Herzog Research Prize Social Market Economy 2024 for BTU junior researcher Charlotte Gerling

In her doctoral thesis, Dr. Charlotte Gerling investigated the question of how species endangered by climate change can be protected as cost-effectively as possible with limited financial budgets: The effects of climate change are progressing. Consequences such as species extinction are increasingly affecting diversity and our quality of life. In order to counteract this trend, political instruments are needed in particular to provide incentives for species protection. The appropriate design of economic policy frameworks can help to create such incentives.

This is where Charlotte Gerling's scientific research comes in. She analyzes ecological species protection plans from an economic perspective and develops a novel evaluation system for testing political instruments under the conditions of climate change. Using real case studies, she shows that measures should be flexible and adapted over time in order to be effective despite limited budgets. Flexible concepts and adjustments in land management can lead to sustainable and cost-efficient solutions in the long term. She sees possibilities for this in the adaptation of policy instruments within the framework of the social market economy. The RHI recognized this approach with the second Roman Herzog Research Prize Social Market Economy, which was awarded to Dr. Charlotte Gerling at a ceremony in Munich on 11 June 2024.

With her economic observations, she is devoting herself to a side of biodiversity conservation that has been largely unexplored to date. She is doing pioneering work with the evaluation of policy instruments. Her dissertation, which she wrote at the Brandenburg University of Technology Cottbus-Senftenberg (BTU) in the Faculty Environment and Natural Sciences, was awarded "summa cum laude". The examiners were Prof. Frank Wätzold, Chair of Economics, in particular Environmental Economics, at BTU and Prof. John Hearne from RMIT University Melbourne.

Just a few days after receiving the Roman Herzog Social Market Economy Research Prize, Dr. Charlotte Gerling was awarded this year's prize for the best dissertation at the Brandenburg University of Technology Cottbus-Senftenberg (BTU) on 19 June 2024. Her doctoral thesis beat off competition from three other outstanding research papers.

The Roman Herzog Institute awards the Roman Herzog Research Prize for the Social Market Economy to young researchers whose dissertations or post-doctoral theses deal with the sustainability of the social market economy and thus with the central regulatory issues of the 21st century. The prize is awarded annually and is endowed with prize money totaling 35,000 euros. Up to three prizes of 20,000, 10,000 and 5,000 euros are awarded each year. Both self-applications and proposals from professors, faculties and institutes are possible.