The Prize Council held its inaugural meeting on January 20, 2021, agreeing that nominations will be sought from all nations and on a global scale. — VNA/VNS Photo

HÀ NỘI — The VinFuture Foundation has announced that more than 500 prominent scientists, universities, and organisations from 36 countries representing six continents have registered to become nominators for the VinFuture Prize since the foundation launched its call for nominations on February 3.

The figure demonstrates the enthusiastic response from the world’s scientific community to this newly established sci-tech prize as well as VinFuture’s mission of serving humanity, the foundation said.

The majority of nominators are from Asia (35.6 per cent) and North America (32 per cent), followed by Europe (21.7 per cent).

Due to the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic and the urgent demand in healthcare, nominators in biomedical research constitute a large proportion of 29.2 per cent, followed by chemistry-physics (23.6 per cent); computer science, data, artificial intelligence, and robotics (16.3 per cent); and environment, renewable energy and new materials (18.3 per cent).

The nominators are globally influential experts, reputable researchers, and scientists, laureates of international prestigious science and technology prizes, as well as renowned universities, academies, research institutes, technology corporations and innovation incubators from 36 different countries.

Lê Mai Lan, Vice Chairwoman of VinGroup cum Designated Representative of the VinFuture Foundation said: “The VinFuture Prize is a new initiative and is also the first science and technology prize originating from Việt Nam”.

“The fact that the prize is introduced whilst we are facing global challenges has been a motivation for VinFuture to continue looking for well-deserved and impactful scientific innovations and solutions that may bring about meaningful change to the humanity,” she added.

The VinFuture Prize is a global science and technology prize founded by Chairman of VinGroup Phạm Nhật Vượng and his wife, Phạm Thu Hương, to recognise groundbreaking scientific discovery and technological inventions proven to create or have the potential to create better change in the lives of millions of people and foster a sustainable living environment.

The Call for Nominations for the 2021 VinFuture Prize is available at vinfutureprize.org until June 7, 2021. The laureates will be announced in December 2021 and the official award ceremony will be held in Việt Nam in January 2022. — VNS