Bevica Scholarship Programme

The Bevica Scholarship Programme is an opportunity for passionate and talented students and lecturers from all disciplines to create a better world.

In the programme students and lecturers get to investigate the potentials of universal design as a tool within their own discipline, in a joint quest to equality.

During the first year of the programme, you learn more about universal design and meet likeminded people while participating in workshops and online modules that will help you form your project.

After the evaluation process the lucky winners will spend the second year travelling, finding new knowledge, creating new solutions and networking with the top people of their fields.

Read more about the process. 

Students 

To sign up for the Bevica Scholarship Programme, students must:

• be enrolled at a Danish research-based university, university college, or design school.
• must have completed at least the 3rd semester of their education at the start of Ideation (January 2025).
• Students from all disciplines can participate. 

Lecturers 

To sign up for the Bevica Scholarship Programme, lecturers must:

• be employed at a Danish research-based university, university college, or design school.
• be able to document active teaching activities within the past two years at the beginning of Ideation (January 2025).
• Lecturers from all disciplines can participate. 

Students

The main prize for students is the Bevica Scholarship of DKK 350.000.

Selected participants receive a Bevica Scholarship travel grant of DKK 30.000.

The Bevica Scholarship is to be used for enrolling in a semester at a foreign university or for taking an internship with a relevant international NGO or company. The travel grant is to be used for investigations in an international context according to submitted project proposals. 

Lecturers

The main prize for lecturers is the Bevica Fellowship of DKK 130.000, there are two Bevica Fellowships each round.

Selected participants receive a Bevica Fellowship travel grant of DKK 30.000.

Bevica Fellowships are to be used to visit a foreign research-based university, university college, or design school, to stimulate and strengthen teaching and curricula development within universal design in a Danish context. 

• Sign-up – 15 August and 1 December 2024
• Ideation workshops – 1 February and 1 March 2025
• Submission of preliminary project proposal – 1 April 2025
• Shortlist reveal – 1 May 2025
• Creation workshop – 16-17 May 2025
• Submission of final project proposal – 14 August 2025
• Symposium and award ceremony – 9 October 2025

How can universal design contribute to creating a more inclusive society in Denmark – embracing everyone, regardless of ability? And what new knowledge is needed to do so?

The Bevica Scholarship Programme challenges participating students to develop a problem statement relevant to investigate the questions above through your own discipline. The process of developing your problem statement will be supported by workshops, online self-study and sparring with experts and peers.

Participating students are to:

• Define and deepen a key problem statement they wish to investigate within their own discipline by means of universal design.
• Ideate how and where they will carry out their investigation. Including identifying a relevant international knowledge environment to visit and carry out their investigations.
• Identify the expected impact of their investigation and potential findings on generating a more inclusive and sustainable society for all in Denmark– regardless of ability.

Proposed projects are to:

• First and foremost, develop universal design within key aspects of our daily lives: products, environments, programmes, and services.
• Implicitly, promote an understanding of human beings that includes everyone across different and changing abilities.
• Consequently, showcase universal design as a lever for the pledge of the UN Sustainable Development Goals to Leave No One Behind

By addressing these prioritised objectives, participating students ideate, refine, and pitch their individual investigative projects for evaluation by an international and interdisciplinary jury.

Bevica Scholarships are ultimately granted to students that excel in their ambition to innovate and demonstrate how universal design can be applied within their own discipline to generate a more inclusive society for all in Denmark.

How can universal design contribute to a more inclusive society? How can teaching at Danish research-based universities, university colleges, or design schools support this quest? And what new knowledge is needed to take action?

The Bevica Scholarship Programme challenges participating lecturers to develop a problem statement relevant to investigate the questions above through your own discipline. The process of developing your problem statement will be supported by workshops, online self-study and sparring with experts and peers.

Participating lecturers are to:

• Define and deepen a key problem statement they wish to investigate within their own discipline by means of universal design.
• Identify one or more key aspects of universal design they wish to gain knowledge about to inform their own teaching practice, policies, and/or subjects.
• Ideate how and where they will carry out their investigation. Including identifying a relevant international knowledge environment to visit and carry out their investigations.
• Identify the expected impact of their investigation on their teaching activities and curriculum development in universal design.

Proposed projects should stimulate and strengthen teaching that:

• First and foremost, develop universal design within key aspects of our daily lives: products, environments, programmes, and services.
• Implicitly, promote an understanding of human beings that includes everyone across different and changing abilities.
• Consequently, increases knowledge about universal design as a lever for the pledge of the UN Sustainable Development Goals to Leave No One Behind

By addressing these prioritised objectives, participating lecturers ideate, refine, and pitch their individual investigative project for evaluation by an international and interdisciplinary jury.

Bevica Fellowships are ultimately granted to lecturers that excel in their ambition to innovate and demonstrate how universal design may stimulate and strengthen their teaching activities and curricula development to generate a more inclusive and sustainable society for all in Denmark.

Everything else you need to know can be found in:

• The Programme
• The FAQ 
• The Official Call
• The Terms and Conditions
• The Jury Evaluation Criteria (coming soon)

Or you can join us at an information meeting.

Joining the Bevica Scholarship Programme is a chance to change the world.

You get:

• the opportunity to make the world better – by investigating universal design, the Leave No One Behind pledge and inclusion that can contribute to a more equal world.

• the access to an extensive network of peers and experts in a national and international context.

• support and profiling through the Bevica Scholarship communication channels and networks.

• an opportunity to join a group of like-minded innovators on a journey to a more inclusive society for all.