image: From left to right: Jan Eeckhout, Carla Lancelotti, Helga Nowotny, Maria Leptin and Laia de Nadal
Credit: Pompeu Fabra University
Pompeu Fabra University has conferred the title of Doctor Honoris Causa on Helga Nowotny and Maria Leptin. Key figures in the consolidation of a European research model, they jointly received the highest academic distinction awarded by the University. According to the rector of UPF, Laia de Nadal, who presided over the ceremony, “Leptin and Nowotny’s work reminds us that there is no world without science and no science without the world.” Helga Nowotny, a sociologist, was the first woman to serve as president of the European Research Council (ERC). Leptin, a biologist, is the institution’s current president.
“We live in complex times,” affirmed Rector Laia de Nadal, in which “anti-intellectualism is threatening the value of knowledge.” Thus, the Rector of UPF highlighted the award of the University’s highest distinction to Leptin and Nowotny as “a fantastic example of how this situation can be confronted.” The former she described as a key reference in fundamental research, an “essential” form of research, as “without fundamental discoveries, we will not be able to ensure the progress of society.” The latter, Nowotny, she identified as a leading figure in interdisciplinarity, with her career serving as a reminder that “knowledge cannot be confined to a pedestal.” Nadal also praised how “being women has helped break glass ceilings and shows that women, in science and institutional leadership, can also play a necessary role.”
The ceremony held to award the title of Doctor Honoris Causa to Helga Nowotny and Maria Leptin took place on 28 April, at noon, in the auditorium on UPF’s Ciutadella campus. Attendees included Núria Montserrat, minister for Research and Universities of the Government of Catalonia; Montserrat Vendrell, chair of UPF’s Board of Trustees (who, at the beginning of the ceremony, read out the agreements of the UPF Board of Governors awarding the title of Doctor Honoris Causa to Nowotny and Leptin); as well as other academic authorities and members of the university community, including former UPF rectors Josep Joan Moreso and Jaume Casals.
Acceptance speeches by Helga Nowotny and Maria Leptin: “Excellence and public responsibility go hand in hand”
Helga Nowotny, after expressing her gratitude to the University for the distinction, praised science as a collective endeavour that provides a broad and multidisciplinary perspective, and which also encompasses the social sciences and humanities, without which the picture would be “incomplete”. She also noted that, during her mandate at the ERC, the number of grants awarded to women rose over the years, despite recognizing that much remains to be done to reach desirable levels and to normalize the presence of women scientists in leadership positions. Nowotny described what the ERC has achieved as a “miracle”, as an example of what happens when the scientific community speaks with one single voice.
Maria Leptin, who described receiving the recognition as not only a personal honour but also “an acknowledgement of a broader idea of European research: open, rigorous, curious and closely linked to society,” went on to commend UPF’s model: “When I examined UPF’s mission and values, I discovered a language that felt very familiar to me. It speaks of academic rigour, critical thinking, innovation, pluralism, social commitment and freedom. I especially like this combination. It conveys a simple but important message: excellence and public responsibility go hand in hand. A university must strive for high standards, both intellectually and scientifically, while remaining open to the world around it.”
Tributes to the doctoral candidates by Jan Eeckhout and Carla Lancelotti
In their laudationes, Jan Eeckhout and Carla Lancelotti, ICREA research professors in the departments of Economics and Business and Humanities, respectively, pointed out that both Helga Nowotny and Maria Leptin have ample reasons to be honoured solely based on their scientific achievements in sociology and biology. However, they explained that their work has gone far beyond this and left a profound mark: the creation of the European Research Council (ERC) and the consolidation of the values that this institution embodies, such as the independence and autonomy of science, scientific excellence and innovation.
Jan Eeckhout, who in his laudatio designated the ERC “an engine of institutional change”, noted that the institution has succeeded largely thanks to the efforts of both researchers: “Fundamental research is key to achieving these European values, including long-term growth and progress, which we know are impossible without innovation.” Among the values he underscored are scientific independence, grounded in good institutional design; a long-term view that accepts uncertainty; and investment in innovation through independence and the separation of technological, economic and scientific power.
Carla Lancelotti, in her tribute, stressed that Leptin and Nowotny “embody the excellence of European Research and the ERC – not just as an institution, but as a vision of what Europe can achieve when investing in individual minds,” going on to add that, “Diversity, openness, stability versus uncertainty and long-term commitment are some of the [values that define them] and are concepts that unite the lifelong work of [both researchers].” Lastly, she commented on the fact that both are women: “Unfortunately, even in Europe, even in 2026, it is still an exceptional achievement for a woman to reach the levels of power and influence that Professors Nowotny and Leptin have attained.”
The ceremony’s musical performances, featuring pieces by Valerie Coleman (Anthem of Unity), Alma Mahler (Bei Dir Ist Es Traut), Clara Schumann (Liebst du um Schönheit), Carme Karr (Cançó de tarda) and Beethoven (An die Freude, Ode to Joy), were performed by the Quartet Brossa and soprano Marta Valero, who concluded the event with a rendition of Gaudeamus Igitur. Likewise, Quim Moya, a live painter, created portraits of Nowotny and Leptin during the ceremony, which were presented at the end of the event.
Helga Nowotny, sociologist of knowledge with an interdisciplinary outlook
Helga Nowotny (Vienna, 1937), professor emerita of Science and Technology Studies at the Federal Institute of Technology in Zurich (ETH) and former president of the ERC, is a sociologist of knowledge and one of Europe’s foremost intellectuals in the analysis of the social role of science. Holder of a PhD in Sociology from Columbia University (New York), she also served as a visiting professor at Harvard, MIT, Columbia and Sciences Po.
Her academic education was shaped by the Central European humanist tradition and by post-war North American and European critical thought, from which she developed a deeply interdisciplinary outlook, driven by constant intellectual curiosity, a rigorous approach to writing and the view that science is inseparable from democratic culture. Her interest in science stems from both the humanities and social sciences – an uncommon combination in her generation – while her distinctive characteristics include her interdisciplinarity, critical thinking and cross-disciplinary dialogue.
She has focused her research on digitalization processes and their social impact, and in 2011, the British newspaper Financial Times named her one of the most influential women in the field of science. She is currently a member of the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences and, in 2017, received the British Academy President’s Medal. She has published multiple books on innovation, science, technology and culture. Recent examples include An Orderly Mess (Central European University Press, 2017) and In AI We Trust: Power, Illusion and Control of Predictive Algorithms (Wiley John + Sons, 2021), published in Spanish by Galaxia Gutenberg (La fe en la inteligencia artificial: Los algoritmos predictivos y el futuro de la humanidad, 2022).
Nowotny, particularly renowned for her theoretical contributions on the relationship between science, society and uncertainty (how societies live with what they do not know), is a leading scholar in debates on trust in science. She is a regular speaker at international forums and an adviser to European governments and institutions on knowledge governance, research and innovation and technology and democracy. During her tenure at the European Research Council, she strongly defended a funding model based exclusively on scientific excellence and played a decisive role in legitimizing the ERC as an independent institution.
Maria Leptin, developmental biologist and staunch advocate for scientific independence
Maria Leptin (Hamburg, 1954), researcher in the Institute for Genetics at the University of Cologne and current president of the European Research Council (ERC), is a biologist best known for her work on the mechanisms that enable a developing organism to adopt its correct shape.
After studying mathematics and biology at the University of Bonn and the University of Heidelberg (Germany), Maria Leptin carried out her PhD research at the Basel Institute for Immunology (Switzerland). She then moved to the Laboratory of Molecular Biology in Cambridge (United Kingdom), after which she became a group leader at the Max Planck Institute for Developmental Biology in Tübingen (Germany) and then professor in the Institute for Genetics at the University of Cologne (Germany). She spent extended research periods and sabbaticals at the University of California, San Francisco (USA), the École Normale Supérieure in Paris (France) and the Wellcome Trust Sanger Institute in Hinxton (United Kingdom).
Before her appointment as ERC president, Maria Leptin was director of the European Molecular Biology Organization (EMBO) in Heidelberg and a research group leader at the European Molecular Biology Laboratory. She holds the title of Doctor Honoris Causa from École Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne (EFPL), Federal Institute of Technology Zurich (ETH), Nova University Lisbon and the University of Cambridge. She was awarded the lifetime achievement award by the Latin American Society for Developmental Biology, the De Sanctis Award for Europe and the De Sanctis Award for Research.
Maria Leptin is a key figure in the defence of basic research and researcher autonomy, as well as a strong advocate for scientific independence, academic freedom and the central role of long-term fundamental research. She advises governments, European institutions and international organizations on research, innovation and knowledge governance. Her tenure as ERC president is regarded as a period of institutional consolidation and strengthening of the Council’s international prestige.
Selection of documents prepared by the UPF Library to explore their work:
The European Research Council (ERC), a body that funds frontier research, with UPF leading in the securing of funding
The European Research Council is the foremost pan-European organization dedicated to funding frontier research and innovation. It is an independent body, established in 2007, that awards grants to researchers of any nationality, provided that their project is carried out within the European Union (EU) or an associated country. It awards five types of grants for different stages of the research career: Starting Grants, for talented early-career researchers; Consolidator Grants, to consolidate research teams; Advanced Grants, for established research leaders; Synergy Grants, for high-risk collaborative projects; and Proof of Concept Grants, to assess the commercial or social viability of research results.
Pompeu Fabra University ranks among the top institutions in Catalonia and Spain in the securing of funding from the European Research Council. Across all calls from 2008 to 2025, and taking together the different grant schemes, it has secured 75 grants with a total funding amount of nearly €111 million.