The 4th season of VinFuture Prize, an annual international award that honours remarkable scientific breakthroughs and promotes innovations for humankind, officially commenced on January 9, calling for nominations worldwide.

Hanoi (VNA) - The 4th season of VinFuture Prize, an annual international award that honours remarkable scientific breakthroughs and promotes innovations for humankind, officially commenced on January 9, calling for nominations worldwide.

The prize is the core activity of the VinFuture Foundation, a non-profit organisation co-founded by Vietnam’s billionaire Pham Nhat Vuong and his spouse Pham Thu Huong.

To participate in its 2024 season, sci-tech inventions and solutions must meet the complete nomination criteria of the award. Accordingly, they should provide clear evidence of their impact on daily life or demonstrate potential based on real-world applications. They should have already benefited millions of people over the past 10 years for the Grand Prize or show potential for the next decade for the Special Prize. Moreover, the solutions should align with at least one of the 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) of the United Nations, alongside other criteria.

Projects nominated by reputable organisations and individuals in the global scientific and technological community will undergo screening and selection by the Pre-Screening Committee and Prize Council.

Prof. Sir Richard Henry Friend, Chair of the VinFuture Prize Council, said that the award has recognised breakthrough advances in many different areas, including agriculture, human health, climate science, global information technology, and renewable energy systems.

“We are very grateful to thousands who have responded to our invitations, and we have had a broad and rich set of innovations to consider. We do want to reach even more widely, to find out about advances happening across the whole world, not just in well-established research environments,” he said.

The nomination portal will remain open until 14:00 on April 17, 2024 with nominations submitted after this deadline automatically considered for the 2025 season.

To provide information on the submission process to nominating partners, the VinFuture Foundation will organise two webinars in the first quarter, with the participation of representatives from the Prize Council, Pre-Screening Committee, and VinFuture Prize laureates.

The third season, themed "Boundless Unity," received 1,389 nominations, more than tripling the number in the first season./.