The Marcel Benoist Swiss Science Prize has been awarded every year since 1920. Switzerland was one of the first countries to apply relevance to human life as the main criterion for its most important scientific award. More than 100 years on, the same principle still applies for nominations and their evaluation.
Criteria
The Marcel Benoist Swiss Science Prize is awarded to established researchers whose work is of relevance to all aspects of human life and society. The research must be of excellent quality, as well as being original, innovative and topical. The prizewinner is internationally recognised and has a proven track record.
Conditions
The Marcel Benoist Swiss Science Prize is not intended to promote young researchers, nor is it a lifetime achievement award. Potential prizewinners are researchers with a well-established reputation and great potential. To be eligible for the award, nominees must, in general, be working at a Swiss institution at the time of their nomination. The work for which the prize is awarded must have been conducted predominantly in Switzerland.
Research fields
Science in Switzerland is extremely diverse. To ensure that the prize reflects that diversity, it has been awarded since 2028 alternately in the fields of humanities and social sciences, mathematics, engineering and natural sciences, and biology and medicine.
Evaluation by Swiss National Science Foundation
The Swiss National Science Foundation (SNSF) has been responsible since 2018 for evaluating all nominees and for making theselection of award winners on behalf of the Marcel Benoist Foundation. To that end, the SNSF has set up an evaluation panel. Two of its members are drawn from public life, at least four are international experts with the remainder drawn from members of the National Research Council and the Marcel Benoist Foundation’s Board of Trustees.
Submission of nominations
Researchers, representatives of higher education institutions, research institutions and other public or private institutions in Switzerland, and former prizewinners may submit their proposals via the website of the Marcel Benoist Foundation during the indicated nomination period. Self-nominations or nominations of a member of the Board of Trustees of the Marcel Benoist Foundation are not permitted. No pre-selection must be carried out by the institutions.