VinFuture Prize

VinFuture Prize
Awarded for	Scientific discoveries and technological innovations
Country	Vietnam
Presented by	The VinFuture Foundation
Reward(s)	The VinFuture Grand Prize awards 70 billion VND, approx. 3 million US$, and three special prizes for Women Innovators, Innovators from Developing Countries, and Emerging Field Innovators - each valued at 500,000 US$ (2021)
First award	2021 (2021)
Website	vinfutureprize.org

The VinFuture Prize is an international award established in Vietnam in 2020 to recognize scientific and technological research. It is presented annually by the VinFuture Foundation. According to the Foundation, the prize aims to support research with the potential to address global challenges in areas such as health, sustainability, and technology.^[1]

Phạm Nhật Vượng, the founder of Vingroup, and his wife, Phạm Thu Hương, established the VinFuture Foundation in 2020. The organization operates as an independent, non-profit entity with the stated mission of recognizing significant innovations in science and technology.

In 2020, they also created the VinFuture Prize, an international award intended to acknowledge contributions in fields including health, environment, and artificial intelligence. The prize aims to support research addressing global challenges and is open to nominations worldwide.

The Prize Council oversees the evaluation and selection process for the VinFuture Prize, including setting award criteria and choosing Laureates.

The Prize Council is chaired by Sir Richard Henry Friend, Cavendish Professor of Physics at the University of Cambridge,^[2] and includes members from international universities and research institutions.

• Prof. Pascale Cossart, FRS (Pasteur Institute, Paris, France)
• Prof. Van-Chi Dang (Ludwig Institute for Cancer Research & Johns Hopkins University, United States)
• Prof. Soumitra Dutta (University of Oxford, United Kingdom)
• Prof. Martin Andrew Green (University of New South Wales, Australia)
• Prof. Daniel Kammen (University of California, Berkeley, United States)
• Prof. Sir Konstantin (Kostya) S. Novoselov, FRS (University of Manchester, United Kingdom; National University of Singapore, Singapore; 2010 Nobel Prize in Physics)
• Prof. Pamela Ronald (University of California, Davis, United States)
• Prof. Daniela Rus (Massachusetts Institute of Technology, United States)
• Prof. Leslie Gabriel Valiant, FRS (Harvard University, United States)

There are 15 honorary members recognized for strategic advisory roles, including^[3]

• Prof. Susan Solomon
• Prof. Albert P. Pisano
• Dr. Xuedong Huang
• Prof. Myles Allen
• Prof. Jennifer Tour Chayes
• Prof. Gérard Albert Mourou
• Prof. Micheal Eugene Porter
• Prof. Ha-Van Vu

The Pre-Screening Committee is responsible for identifying and reviewing qualified nominations in accordance with the selection criteria set by the Prize Council, and preparing and presenting supporting documents for the shortlist to the Prize Council.^[4]

• Prof. Thuc-Quyen Nguyen (University of California, Santa Barbara, United States)
• Prof. Ngoc-Minh Do (University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign, United States; VinUniversity, Vietnam)
• Prof. Ana Belén Elgoyhen (University of Buenos Aires, Argentina)
• Dr. Filippo Giorgi (Abdus Salam International Centre for Theoretical Physics, Italy)
• Prof. Quarraisha Abdool Karim, FRS (Center for the AIDS Programme of Research in South Africa - CAPRISA, South Africa)
• Prof. Ermias Kebreab (University of California, Davis, United States)
• Dr. Jayshree Seth (3M, Minnesota, United States)
• Prof. Ingolf Steffan-Dewenter (University of Würzburg, Germany)
• Prof. Fiona Watt (European Molecular Biology Organization - EMBO, Germany)
• Prof. Vivian Yam (University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong, PRC)

• Prof. Hans Joachim Schellnhuber
• Prof. Mônica Alonso Cotta
• Prof. Alta Schutte
• Prof. Albert P. Pisano
• Prof. Myles Allen
• Mr. Akihisa Kakimoto
• Prof. Duc-Thu Nguyen
• Prof. Molly Shoichet
• Mr. Truong Quoc Hung
• Prof. Trac D. Tran
• Dr. Bui Hai Hung

Nominations are compiled and qualified by the VinFuture Prize Secretariat before the pre-screening round, which includes scientists in natural science, health science, agriculture, earth science, environmental science, computer science, and engineering – technology, development along with experts in artificial intelligence, renewable energy, biotechnology, new materials, environmental conservation, and other fields.

The nominations are evaluated by the VinFuture Prize Pre-screening Committee, based on three core criteria:

• Scientific and technological advancement
• Meaningful changes in people's lives
• Scale of impact and sustainability.

The 17 Sustainable Development Goals of the United Nations, must be adhered to by the candidates.^[5][6]

Four scientific discoveries that improve human lives and enhance equitability and sustainability for future generations are selected by the VinFuture Prize Council. A Grand Prize and three special prizes are awarded annually. The prize winners are announced at the VinFuture Prize Award Ceremony.^[7] The Grand Prize awards $3 million in funding, and the special prizes award $500,000 in funding each based on the following criteria:^[8]

• Special Prize for an excellent researcher or innovator from a developing-nation institute.
• Special Prize for an outstanding female researcher or innovator.
• Special Prize for groundbreaking discovery or invention in an emerging field of science or technology that has the potential to make a substantial beneficial impact on mankind in the future.

The VinFuture Sci-Tech Week and Award Ceremony are held annually, aiming to foster connections between Vietnam's scientific and technological community, and the global community.^[9][10]

The VinFuture Sci-Tech Week brings together scientists, politicians, and entrepreneurs from around the world. Scientists will gather in Vietnam to participate in the four main events of the VinFuture Sci-Tech Week: a conversation with the Prize Council and Pre-screening Committee, a "Science for Life" Symposium, the inaugural VinFuture Award Ceremony, and a Scientific Dialogue with the inaugural VinFuture Prize Laureates.^[9]

The VinFuture Award Ceremony is a formal event attended by Vietnamese government leaders, scientists, and recipients of scientific honors such as the Nobel Prize, Millennium Technology Prize, Turing Award, and others. The award ceremony is broadcast live on local as well as global science and technology platforms.^[9]

Year	Ceremony Date	Prize name	Laureate	Nationality	Citation
2021	20 January 2022	Grand Prize	Katalin Karikó	Hungary  United States	for making a significant contribution to the development of mRNA vaccination technology.[11][12]
			Drew Weissman	United States
			Pieter Cullis	Canada
		Woman Innovator	Zhenan Bao	United States	for research on electronic skins that can stretch and heal like normal skins while also being biodegradable.[11][12]
		Innovators from Developing Countries	Salim Abdool Karim	South Africa	for the development of a tenofovir gel that can be used to prevent HIV infection in women.[11][12]
			Quarraisha Abdool Karim
		Innovators with Outstanding Achievements in Emerging Field	Omar M. Yaghi	United States	for designing and synthesizing new types of reticular compounds such as metal-organic frameworks (MOFs), zeolitic imidazolate frameworks (ZIFs), and covalent organic frameworks (COFs).[11][12]
2022	20 December 2022	Grand Prize	Tim Berners-Lee	United Kingdom	for ground-breaking research on global network technology, allowing all forms of information to be reliably communicated, transferred, and shared at the speed of light.[13]
			Vint Cerf	United States
			Emmanuel Desurvire	France
			Bob Kahn	United States
			David N. Payne	United Kingdom
		Woman Innovator	Pamela Ronald	United States	for breakthroughs in isolating the Sub1A gene, which facilitated the development of submergence tolerant rice varieties, helping feed millions of people in South and Southeast Asia.[13]
		Innovators from Developing Countries	Thalappil Pradeep	India	for development of a low-cost filtration system to remove arsenic and other heavy metals from groundwater, helping hundreds of millions of people around the world living with contaminated water get access to clean water.[13]
		Innovators with Outstanding Achievements in Emerging Field	Demis Hassabis	United Kingdom	for pioneering work on AlphaFold 2, an artificial intelligence program that has revolutionized the modeling of protein structures, accelerating advances in biomedicine, health, and agriculture.[13]
			John Jumper
2023	20 December 2023	Grand Prize	Martin Green	Australia	for revolutionary innovations that contribute to establishing a sustainable foundation for green energy by utilizing solar cells for production and Lithium-ion batteries for storage.[14][15]
			M. Stanley Whittingham	United States
			Rachid Yazami	Morocco
			Akira Yoshino	Japan
		Woman Innovator	Susan Solomon	United States	for uncovering the mechanism of ozone depletion in Antarctica, which played a key role in the development of the Montreal Protocol.[14][15]
		Innovators from Developing Countries	Gurdev Khush	United States	for their noteworthy efforts in developing and promoting disease-resistant rice varieties, such as IR36 and IR64, thereby safeguarding global food security.[14][15]
			Võ Tòng Xuân	Vietnam
		Innovators with Outstanding Achievements in Emerging Field	Daniel J. Drucker	Canada	for identifying the function of glucagon-like peptide-1 (GLP-1), leading to the development of widely utilized treatments for diabetes and obesity, and fostering new applications for addressing neurodegenerative diseases.[14][15]
			Joel Habener	United States
			Svetlana Mojsov
			Jens Juul Holst	Denmark
2024	6 December 2024	Grand Prize	Yoshua Bengio	Canada	For transformational contributions to the advancement of deep learning.
			Geoffrey Hinton
			Jensen Huang	United States
			Yann LeCun
			Fei-Fei Li
		Woman Innovator	Kristi Anseth	United States	For advancement in design of polymeric biomaterials and methods for biomedical applications.
		Innovators from Developing Countries	Firdausi Qadri	Bangladesh	For innovative improvement of oral cholera vaccination in developing countries.
		Innovators with Outstanding Achievements in Emerging Field	Zelig Eshhar	Israel	For development of CAR T cell therapy for cancer and other diseases.
			Carl H. June	United States
			Michel Sadelain

The nominations have received praise from Professor Sir Richard Henry Friend, Chairman of the VinFuture Prize Council and the Cavendish Professor of Physics at the University of Cambridge.^[16]

Nobel Laureate Sir Konstantin Novoselov has commented on its "promotion of diversity and inclusion in the global scientific community".^[17]

• Japan Prize
• Tang Prize
• Breakthrough Prize
• Turing Award

Wikimedia Commons has media related to VinFuture.

• Official website
  • VinFuture Prize on Facebook
  • VinFuture Prize's channel on YouTube
  • VinFuture Prize on LinkedIn