The European Entrepreneurship Award (EEEA) is presented annually by the Sten K. Johnson Centre for Entrepreneurship. The award recognizes an individual or an organisation that has contributed to the improvement of entrepreneurship education in academia in Europe. The award is comprised of the honor and a diploma, as well as a sum of 100 000 SEK.
The award highlights the importance of teaching and learning in the area of entrepreneurship in Europe, stimulates and promotes innovative teaching methods within the field, and diffuses the state-of-the-art entrepreneurial education among scholars, policymakers' practitioners, and people involved in entrepreneurship education at the university level.
The award winner of the EEEA is an individual or an organisation active in Europe. To be considered a nominee for the EEEA, the nominee has to have contributed significantly by developing pedagogic perspectives or ways of teaching entrepreneurship, through education, research or outreach activities.
This year the award goes to Associate Professor Marco van Gelderen at VU University Amsterdam.
The Award Committee Citation
Associate Professor Marco van Gelderen at VU University Amsterdam in the Netherlands has been a key scholar within the entrepreneurship education community when it comes to the teaching and learning of enterprising competencies. As a psychologist, Van Gelderen interest lies in how individuals become more effective in their daily life through enterprising behaviours. Van Gelderen has also played a crucial role in developing novel and innovative experiential teaching formats to train enterprising competencies by integrating an autonomy-based approach as a guideline for entrepreneurship education. As a result, his teaching formats have been successfully disseminated not only on his website, but also in various courses and educational levels across different European universities. In addition, van Gelderen is a well-published scholar within entrepreneurship education, competencies and pedagogy. He is an active member in both 3E (ECSB Entrepreneurship Education) and USASBE conferences and an editor of the learning innovation section of the Entrepreneurship Education & Pedagogy Journal. He also serves on the editorial board of the Journal of Business Venturing and Entrepreneurship Theory & Practice. His innovative ideas on fostering enterprising behaviour have positively influenced entrepreneurship education across Europe. Overall, he is a worthy recipient of the European Education Award.
