The EPhESO Award
The EPhESO Award is a prestigious prize conferred by the Institute for Mediterranean Studies of the National Research Council and the Cisalpino Monduzzi publishing house, to personalities who have distinguished themselves for their cultural, political, social or economic contribution to the development of relations in the Euro-Mediterranean area. It was created in 2016 as part of the EPHESO - Euromediterranean Phenomena. An Economic and Social Observatory, to which it has been linked since its inception.
Nominations for the Prize are proposed each year by the Chair or members of the Jury. If there are several nominations, they are submitted to a vote of the jury and, in the event of a tie, the President's vote decrees the final nomination.
Purposes and values
EPHESUS: as the Greek city that later became the capital of the Roman province in Asia Minor, which was the home of Heraclitus and was a key trading point on the border between West and East. Its splendour belongs to centuries that are at once distant but bear many similarities to our own times. Remote and recent times of contrasts and relationships, of competition and alliances. Times in which culture formed the cement for the development of trade, industry, relationships. And by culture we do not simply mean the knowledge of data and disciplines, but rather the synthesis of knowledge, desires, initiatives, actions: those that the peoples overlooking the Mediterranean share and that have allowed the birth of the Euro-Mediterranean community.
There are distant and deep roots at stake, uniting individuals and peoples in a topicality that drives towards union. They are the same ones that drive Europe, the Middle East and all the countries bordering the Mediterranean towards the thousands of opportunities that arise when working towards a common goal.
The EPhESO Award and the series aim to enhance all this. Not only from a descriptive point of view, but also from the point of view of collaboration between culture and business, so as to provoke, and not just recount, social, economic, cultural and scientific initiatives and actions that have relations in the Euro-Mediterranean area as their main theme. The Award, in particular, aims to give due recognition to personalities who have worked or are working in this ideal order of ideas and actions, offering concrete example and testimony. Such as Senator Liliana Segre, who received the EPhESO 2020 Award in a ceremony held at the European Commission Representation in Italy (Rome).
The Jury
In 2021, the EPhESO Award is renewed and strengthened, together with the publishing series 'EPHESO - Euromediterranean Phenomena. An Economic and Social Observatory'. One of the driving forces behind this change is the important annexation of the Institute for Mediterranean Studies of the National Research Council (CNR-ISMed), of which the series and the Prize are an expression.
The Award has a high quality Jury, composed, in addition to the President, of distinguished representatives of the economic world, academia and diplomacy of countries belonging to the Euro-Mediterranean area.
Members in office:
Ambassador Mario Boffo
President of EPhESO Award
Roma (Italia)
Direttore dell'Istituto di Studi sul Mediterraneo del Consiglio Nazionale delle Ricerche (CNR-ISMed)
Professore di Economia, Università degli Studi Parthenope di Napoli (Italia)
Mister Domenico Contessa
Imprenditore turistico
Amb. Enrico Granara
Già Vice Direttore per il Mediterraneo e il Medio Oriente del Ministero degli Affari Esteri e della Cooperazione Internazionale
Prof. Françoise Graziani
Professore di Letterattura Mediterranea Comparata presso l’Università della Corsica
Amb. Fayiz Khouri
Ambasciatore del Regno Hascemita di Giordania in Italia
Dr. Nadia Majoul
Vice Presidente dell’Unione tunisina di Industria, Commercio e Artigianato
Dr. Mario Mattioli
Presidente della Confederazione Italiana degli Armatori
Amb. Laura Mirachian
già Ambasciatore d’Italia in Siria, e presso le Nazioni Unite a Ginevra.
Mons. Giovanni Roncari
Vescovo di Pitigliano-Sovana-Orbetello e Grosseto.
Arch. Fiona Sartoretto Verna
Titolare della Sartoretto Verna - Pharmacy Project
Amb. Moez Sinaoui
Ambasciatore di Tunisia in Italia
Prof. Myriam Swennen Ruthenberg
Professore di Letteratura Italiana presso la Florida Atlantic University
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Editions
EPhESO Awards from previous editions
2022 Izzeddin Elzir, Imam di Firenze e Vicepresidente della Scuola di studi avanzati per il dialogo interreligioso e interculturale dello stesso capoluogo toscano, per il suo contributo alla costruzione di ponti ed alla comprensione reciproca tra comunità religiose
2021 Sua Beatitudine Pierbattista Pizzaballa, Patriarca Latino di Gerusalemme, per le relazioni euro-mediterranee
2020 Liliana Segre, for the initiatives taken as Senator of the Italian Republic against the phenomena of intolerance, racism, anti-Semitism and incitement to hatred and violence
2018 M'Barka Ben Taleb, or the artistic career, carried out in the wake of Euro-Mediterranean culture
2017- Giovanni Tumbiolo, for his role as President of the Mazara del Vallo Fishing District
2016 Enrico Granara, for his role as head of Euro-Mediterranean relations at MAECI