Latvijas Banka awards prizes to student research paper winners in Riga ceremony

Latvijas Banka on Friday awarded prizes to the winners of its 24th annual Competition of Student Scientific Research Papers during a ceremony at its Riga headquarters. The event, held on 26 June 2026, capped months of submissions from undergraduate and graduate students across Latvia, with the central bank recognising the top three entries in a ceremony attended by academics, policymakers and financial-sector leaders.

The competition, organised by Latvijas Banka’s research department, drew 127 submissions this year, up from 98 in 2025. A jury of senior economists and academics selected winners across three categories: monetary economics, financial stability and sustainable finance. The first prize, carrying a €5,000 grant and a six-month research internship at the bank, went to Elīna Bērziņa, a master’s student at the University of Latvia, for her paper “Climate-Related Financial Risks in the Baltic Banking Sector.” Second prize, worth €3,000 and a three-month internship, was awarded to Rihards Liepiņš for “Digital Euro Adoption Scenarios in the Eurozone Periphery,” while third prize, €2,000 and a mentorship programme, was given to Zane Kalniņa for “Household Debt and Consumption Patterns in Post-Pandemic Latvia.”

Speaking at the ceremony, Latvijas Banka Governor Mārtiņš Kazāks said the competition underscored the central bank’s commitment to fostering “rigorous, policy-relevant research among the next generation of economists.” He highlighted Bērziņa’s work as particularly timely, noting that climate-related financial risks have become a priority for the European Central Bank’s supervisory agenda. “These papers demonstrate that Latvia’s universities are producing research that matters not just locally, but across the EU,” Kazāks said.

The award ceremony also featured a keynote address by European Central Bank Executive Board member Fabio Panetta, who praised the competition as “a vital bridge between academia and central banking.” Panetta emphasised the need for deeper integration of climate risk modelling into prudential frameworks, echoing themes raised in Bērziņa’s winning paper.

This year’s competition saw a record 42% increase in submissions from non-Latvian universities, reflecting growing interest from students in Estonia, Lithuania and beyond. The organisers announced that next year’s edition will introduce a new category focused on digital currencies and decentralised finance, reflecting the rapid evolution of the financial sector.