The Bjarni Benediktsson Research Fund

The 30 April 2008, hundred years had passed since the birth of Bjarni Benediktsson, Professor of Law professor and Prime Minister of Iceland. As a way to honour his memory, a research fund was established in his name, aimed at research in law and history.

Annually, grants are allocated for research in the field of law and history, more specifically in the field of administration and constitutional law and in the field of economic and political history of the 20^th century up to current times.

The next deadline for proposals will be 5 March 2012.

The members of the allocation committee on law research are Dr. Páll Hreinsson, Supreme Court judge (chairman); Ms. Björg Thorarensen, law professor and Mr. Björn Bjarnason. The committee’s alternate is Dr. Ragnhildur Helgadóttir, professor of law.

The members of the allocation committee on history research are Dr. Anna Agnarsdóttir, history professor (chairman); Mr. Matthías Johannessen, writer and Ms. Sólrún Jensdóttir, historian. The committee’s alternate is Mr. Valur Ingimundarson, professor of histroy.

The allocation committees set the allocation rules, evaluate applications and allocate grants. The Icelandic Centre for Research (Rannís) is responsible for the running and administration of the fund, which follows the same rules as other funds on open and professional administration.

The allocation committee’s decision on which projects receive grants are based on a professional evaluation of the research project’s quality, the skills and experience of the applicant to do research, as well as the applicant’s facilities. Should the committee receive applications, which do not fulfil the aforementioned criteria, no grants will be allocated.

When publishing the research findings, the grant recipient shall mention, in either the project’s introduction or abstract, that the research project received a grant from the Bjarni Benediktsson Research Fund.

The friends and family of Bjarni Benediktsson have collectively raised money to operate the grant scheme. As a result, the operation of the fund is seen as a five year project.  However, people and companies will be contacted, in order to strengthen the grant scheme and a bank account for donations will be created.

An agreement has been made between the Reykjavík Municipal Archive and Bjarni Benediktsson’s descendants, regarding the preservation of Bjarni’s documents and photos in the archive. In relation to this agreement, an archive related website has been opened, where data concerning Bjarni Benediktsson is viewable, as well as information on Bjarni Benediktsson Research Grants and abstracts from grant recipients’ projects.

 

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