VinFuture Prize to celebrate 4 scientific innovations for humanity

One year after its launch, the VinFuture Prize council has completed the evaluation process and selected four groundbreaking scientific innovations that have made and will continue to make positive impacts in the everyday lives of millions of people around the world.

This is an international event to honor outstanding scientific achievements and promote innovations for humanity in 2021, with the participation of world-leading scientists, policy makers, leaders of technology corporations, and Prize winners.

The inaugural VinFuture Prize award ceremony will be held on Jan. 20, 2022.Photo by VinFuture Prize

The award ceremony will be held on Jan. 20 evening to honor the winners of the inaugural VinFuture Prize, including the VinFuture Grand Prize valued at $3 million and three special prizes, each valued at $500,000, for female innovators, innovators from developing countries, and innovators with outstanding achievements in emerging fields.

As part of the award ceremony event series, VinFuture will organize a sci-tech week for the scientific community, business and start-up leaders in industry and technology. The foundation will also hold dialogues and interactive sessions with Prize Council members and VinFuture Laureates that will catalyze the intellectual connection between Vietnam’s scientific and technological community and the world as well as bridge academia and industry, thus contributing to the transformation of science and technology innovations into real life applications.

VinFuture Prize Council members. Photo by VinFuture Prize

Commenting on the upcoming events, Professor Sir Richard Henry Friend, chair of the VinFuture Prize Council and a 2010 Laureate of the Millennium Prize, said: “Science and technology need to deliver benefits to all peoples and all nations. The VinFuture Prize will recognize those whose brilliant science or engineering achievements can have positive impacts on the lives of millions of people across the planet.”

VinFuture Foundation is founded by Pham Nhat Vuong, chairman of Vingroup, and his wife, Pham Thu Huong, with the vision of creating meaningful change in the everyday lives of millions of people.

In its inaugural year, VinFuture received 599 quality nominations from more than 60 countries around the world. Among these, nearly 100 nominations came from the world’s top 2 percent most-cited scientists, many of whom are laureates of distinguished awards, including the Nobel Prize, Breakthrough Prize, Tang Prize, Japan Prize, among others. All the nominations were assessed in multiple evaluation and selection rounds by a 12-member, Pre-screening Committee, and then by 11 Prize Council members.

With a large number of quality nominations going through a rigorous assessment process conducted by the Prize Council of globally influential scientists and leaders in academia, research, and innovation, 2021 VinFuture Prize is expected to identify breakthrough inventions and innovations that will bring about practical applications and meaningful impacts in the everyday lives of people.

Remarkably, the in-person presence of great minds from the global science and technology community at the inaugural VinFuture Prize award ceremony and VinFuture Sci-tech Week will contribute to positioning Vietnam as a new destination full of potential and open up opportunities to build direct and multi-dimensional cooperative relationships between scientists and entrepreneurs, promoting the commercialization and application of scientific innovations into the real world.

Besides the Laureate Announcement and award ceremony on Jan. 20, there will be academic activities taking place from Jan. 18-21, which include Conversation with the VinFuture Prize Council members; Symposium “Science for Life”; Scientific Dialogue with the inaugural VinFuture Prize Laureates.

VinFuture Prize Foundation, introduced on International Solidarity Day, Dec. 20, 2020, will conduct many activities to accomplish its mission, such as funding research projects, collaborating in academic development, and promoting STEM education.