Essay Competition

The Ronald Mitchell Prize

We are pleased to announce the inaugural competition for the Ronald Mitchell Prize awarded to the best student paper using the International Environmental Agreements Database (IEADB). The rules of the competition are as follows:

Papers must use the IEADB (www.ieadb.com) as one of their primary empirical material.
Papers must be authored by individuals who were students (from undergraduate students to PhD candidates) in 2025. Coauthored papers are allowed, provided the first author is a student.
Eligible submissions include term papers, master's theses, thesis chapters, or side projects.
Papers completed before February 1, 2025, are not eligible.
Papers may be published or unpublished. Authors retain full copyright over their submissions.
Papers must have between 5,000 and 12,000 words, including references. Authors are welcome to include supplementary material, such as appendices or coding scripts that exceed the word limit.
Papers written in languages other than English must be accompanied by an English translation.
Submissions will be evaluated based on originality, rigor, integrity, and depth.
Papers must be submitted via email to ieadb@ulaval.ca by February 1, 2026.

The selection committee is made of four members of the IEADB board:

Aseem Prakash (University of Washington)
Jean-Frédéric Morin (Université Laval)
Jennifer Allan (Cardiff University)
Ronald Mitchell (University of Oregon)

The winner will receive a cash prize of $500 USD.