19 Jan Romain Mauger receives 2 prizes for the DELaw project
On the 20th of November 2025, Dr. Mauger received 2 prizes: both the regional (at Extremadura’s scale) and the national (Spanish level) DaVinci Prize for humanities. These were granted during the IPFest 2025, an annual Spanish event were knowledge transfer is rewarded with different categories.
The DaVinci prize is granted to the most integrative initiatives merging sciences, humanities and arts in the innovation context. The prizes were granted to Dr. Mauger for his academic research at the crossroads of various scientific disciplines in the field of energy, and especially so regarding the DELaw project, integrating law, degrowth theory and life-cycle analysis, mobilising a wide spectrum of disciplines.
Media coverage (here, here, here and here) highlighted the fact that DELaw is the first ERC project in the region of Extremadura and that it aims at creating new legal frameworks for the energy transition.
On the occasion of the reception of the prizes, Dr. Mauger pronounced 2 speeches (the first one to the audience in the room, and the second one broadcasted live in all Spanish regions, as the event took place simultaneously in the whole country) where he highlighted the need for adequate and stable-over-time public funding for science in order to benefit society. He also briefly explained why degrowth is urgently needed given the context of polycrises in which we are.
These prizes are yet another proof that Degrowth theory is not a fringe field, but a growing, scientifically solid and interest-raising theory for our times, with a very large set of solutions to be implemented.
