The Acton Institute’s biggest event of the year, Acton University has been named a finalist for the Templeton Freedom Award. Every year since 2004, the Atlas Network gives out this award, named after the late investor and philanthropist Sir John Templeton. It “honors his legacy by identifying and recognizing the most exceptional and innovative contributions to the understanding of free enterprise, and the public policies that encourage prosperity, innovation, and human fulfillment via free competition.”
The criteria for Templeton Freedom Award finalists:
- Achieved strategic impact (in areas of policy impact, social impact, academic impact, media impact, or student impact, etc.),
- Made innovative contributions to the field of free enterprise education or policy research, and
- Laid the groundwork for future progress in improving countries’ scores in rankings of economic freedom (e.g., The Index of Economic Freedom or the Economic Freedom of the World report).
Acton University is a unique, four-day exploration of the intellectual foundations of a free society. Guided by a distinguished, international faculty, Acton University is an opportunity to deepen participants’ knowledge and integrate rigorous philosophy, Christian theology, and sound economics. This event is unique, in that “[n]o other conference attempts to bring together such a diverse group from around the world to immerse them in an exploration of virtue and individual liberty.” Every year, the focus of finding lasting solutions to poverty attracts more and more international participants, especially from developing nations. Executive Director of the Acton Institute, Kris Mauren, notes that “These young people know what hasn’t worked in desperately poor places in Latin America, Asia, and Africa. They come to Acton University to find out what actually does work.”
The 2014 finalists include:
- Acton Institute: Acton University
- Center For Political Studies (CEPOS): Private Property Project
- Civismo: Low Taxes for Spain campaign
- Foundation for Government Accountability (FGA): Initiative to limit Medicaid expansion
- Goldwater Institute: Education Savings Accounts initiative
- Illinois Policy Institute: Campaign to stop an unfair progressive income tax
- IPEA (Agora Institute for Strategic Thinking): One Million Youth for Mexico Campaign
- Lithuanian Free Market Institute: Municipal Performance Index
The winner will be announced on November 13 at the Liberty Forum and Freedom Dinner in New York. For more information, See the Atlas Network’s press release. To learn more about Acton University, visit University.Acton.org.
