td-award for eDiversity: protecting cultural diversity in a networked world.

The Swiss Academies Award for Transdisciplinary Research (td-award[1]) is given biannually in recognition of outstanding transdisciplinary work according to the criteria developed and published by td-net[2]. Projects carried out by individuals or research teams are eligible. The winner or the winning team receives 75,000 Swiss Francs. Awarded by Stiftung Mercator Schweiz[3], this is the highest reearch prize of the Swiss Academies of Arts and Sciences.

The td-award 2010 has just ben allocated at the td-conference 2010[4] to the project “eDiversity: The Legal Protection of Cultural Diversity in a Digital Networked Environment[5].” This project was directed by Prof. Dr. Christoph Beat Graber of i-call[6], the research center for international communications and art law at the University of Lucerne. It was an integral part of the first phase (2005–2009) of the NCCR Trade Regulations[7]. The project was selected as the winner for its integrative, timely, and path-breaking intervention in the field of media regulation concerning the protection and promotion of diversity of old indigenous as well as very new cultural expressions.

td-net also honoured the life-long engagement in transdisciplinarity of Prof. em. Dr. Thomas Bearth from the University of Zurich, above all his commitment to the international initiative Lagsus (Language, Gender, Sustainability[8]), which was carried out in often adverse political circumstances in Indonesia, the Ivory Cost, Uganda, and Namibia.