Inspired by the noble mission and unique values of the VinFuture Prize, the number of international scientists serving as official nominating partners has increased more than twelvefold compared to the 1,200 recorded in the inaugural season. -- Photo courtesy of VinFuture

HÀ NỘI – The VinFuture Prize, a global science and technology award, concluded its nomination round for its fifth season, receiving 1,705 applications from around the world, the organising board said on May 22.

Notably, the number of official nominating partners has seen exceptional growth, reaching 14,772, more than a twelvefold increase from the 1,200 recorded in the inaugural season, and a 60% jump from 2024.

Among these, the majority of nominating partners are from the Americas (31%), followed by Europe (28.6%), Asia (26.8%), Africa (7.1%), and Oceania (6.5%).

Nearly half of the nominators are experts from leading universities and research institutions worldwide like Harvard University, the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Stanford University (the US); the University of Cambridge, the University of Oxford (the UK); the University of Melbourne (Australia); the University of Toronto (Canada); and the National University of Singapore (Singapore), among others.

Remarkably, 1,395 nominating partners are scientists ranked among the top 2% most-cited researchers globally, based on the prestigious list compiled by experts at Stanford University.

The 2025 nominations continue to span essential fields of life and global sustainable development. Medicine and healthcare lead with 36.7% of submissions, while energy, transportation, and construction account for 17.8%. Environment and earth sciences also represent 17.8%, and agriculture and food 11.3%. These vital areas reflect prevailing trends in scientific and technological advancement, and are drawing significant global attention.

VinFuture's nominating partners work on a voluntary basis, playing a crucial role in discovering and recommending deserving scientific works that create positive impacts on human life while enhancing VinFuture Prize’s stature within the international scientific community.

In 2024, following a nomination by Professor Monica Lam, a leading computer scientist at Stanford University, Jensen Huang, CEO and co-founder of NVIDIA, was honoured as one of the 2024 VinFuture Grand Prize laureates for his industry-driven contributions to the advancement of deep learning.

Dr. Le Thai Ha, Managing Director of the VinFuture Foundation, said that the extraordinary growth in nominating partners alongside the increasingly high quality of nominated works each year not only demonstrates the international scientific community's growing confidence in the prize but also reflects the urgent need for breakthrough scientific and technological solutions to build a world where humanity thrives in harmony with a sustainable environment.

The 2025 VinFuture pre-screening round will take place from May 26 to August 31, enabling the 10-member Pre-Screening Committee to meticulously evaluate the most impactful and award-worthy nominations for advancement to the final round.

To ensure scientific integrity, fairness, and transparency, the committee will assess the nominations through a rigorous evaluation process based on the highest international standards and core criteria. These criteria include the degree of scientific or technological advancement, the impact on people’s lives, and the project’s scale and sustainability.

Within just five years, the VinFuture Prize has rapidly established its international stature and prestige, as evidenced by the growing list of laureates honoured with prestigious global accolades.

Notable examples include Dr. Katalin Kariko and Prof. Drew Weissman (laureates of the 2021 VinFuture Grand Prize and 2023 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine); Dr. Demis Hassabis and Dr. John Jumper (laureates of the 2022 VinFuture Special Prize and 2024 Nobel Prize in Chemistry); Prof. Geoffrey Hinton (laureate of the 2024 VinFuture Grand Prize and 2024 Nobel Prize in Physics); Prof. Yoshua Bengio, Prof. Geoffrey Hinton, Jensen Huang, Prof. Yann LeCun, and Prof. Fei-Fei Li (laureates of the 2024 VinFuture Grand Prize and 2025 Queen Elizabeth Prize for Engineering); and Prof. Daniel Joshua Drucker, Prof. Joel Francis Habener, Prof. Jens Juul Holst, and Assoc. Prof. Svetlana Mojsov (laureates of the 2023 VinFuture Special Prize and 2025 Breakthrough Prize). - VNS