Call for Nominations
Recognition of a Nordic Caring Science Research Project
Awarded by
The Nordic College of Caring Science Forskningsfond
In collaboration with
The Nordic College of Caring Science
Professor Katie Eriksson
Professor Katie Eriksson (1943 – 2019) was one of the Caring Science pioneers in the Nordic countries. After a brief career as a nurse, healthcare provider, and nursing teacher, Eriksson continued with a scholarly career, and in 1982 she received her PhD in Pedagogics at the University of Helsinki, Finland.
Her life work was carried out during more than 30 years at Åbo Akademi
University in Vasa, Finland where she arrived in 1986, after 12 years as head of Helsingfors svenska sjukvårdinstitut, having been called to plan an education- and research program in Caring Science. The planning resulted in the establishment of the Department of Caring Science in 1987. Eriksson was appointed Professor of Caring Science in 1992, and under her leadership the Department was brought to a leading position in Caring Science and has attracted students and researchers from all Nordic countries.
The main focus for Eriksson’s scientific work was basic research. She viewed Caring Science as an autonomous, humanistic and profession-neutral discipline and developed its ontological, epistemological, and ethical basic assumptions. Her view on knowledge development is rooted in the idea that ethics precedes ontology, which means that human holiness and dignity permeate the research process and search for knowledge.
Eriksson also emphasized the significance of language and concepts, and to clarify the concepts of Caring Science she developed a model for systematic concept analysis.
Eriksson also developed the substance of Caring Science with a focus on fundamental issues of caring and search for its core and ethos. In caritative caring theory, caritas is highlighted as ethos or fundamental motive for caring. To alleviate suffering and serve life and health was, according to Eriksson, the ultimate goal of caring.
Eriksson was a very productive researcher and author. Her scientific production comprises more than 400 titles in the form of textbooks, reports and scientific articles in international and national journals. Some of her publications have been translated into other languages, primarily into Finnish and other Nordic languages, and also into English, German and even braille.
Eriksson was in many ways before her time. She possesed a visionary view onknowledge development, education and caring praxis. With her groundbreaking thought, her ideas and theories have had a great impact on research, education and clinical praxis, particularly in the Nordic countries, and thereby contributed to concrete progress in healthcare.
Eriksson was for many years an active force in the Nordic College of Caring Science
(NCCS), and she was appointed an honorary member in the society in 2012. With
Katie Eriksson’s Memorial Prize the NCCS seeks to establish, via its research fund (NCCSF), the legacy of Eriksson’s work by supporting research and development in her spirit.
Aim of Memorial Prize
The aim with the Memorial Prize is twofold. First, the Prize will be awarded in Katie Eriksson’s memory and her extensive work in relation to the development of caring theory and Caring Science. Second, the Prize will serve as a source of inspiration for Caring Science researchers and support the scientific development of Caring Science as the basis for all caring. The Prize is awarded to Nordic research projects that make a contribution to knowledge on respectful and dignified caring of the human being in various life situations, contexts and in different cultures, specifically in terms of health, suffering, life-long disabilities, and imminent death.
Nordic research projects refers to research projects that have their origins in a Nordic country.
The Memorial Prize is awarded for ongoing research projects and projects that have been completed within the last 12 months.
The Prize includes Professor Katie Eriksson’s Memorial diploma and a sum of 50,000 SEK as economic support to the awardwinner’s Caring Science research. The Prize also includes a one-year free membership in the NCCS, as well as a oneyear free subscription to the Scandinavian Journal of Caring Sciences.
With this call, the NCCSF invites proposals of names of candidates for nomination.
The nomination of candidates to the Memorial Prize should be signed by three designated persons.
One cannot nominate oneself.
Board members in the NCCS and representatives of the NCCSF cannot be nominated.
The yearly deadline to nominate candidates for the Memorial Prize is February 1.
Forms for the nomination of candidates can be found on the NCCS webpage under
Forskningsfond; https://www.nccs.nu/forskningsfond/
Please send forms to:
The Nordic College of Caring Science Forskningsfond/chairperson Oscar Tranvåg, email: oscar.tranvag@hvl.no