Bial Foundation €0.3 million prize seeks winner to follow mRNA pioneers
28 Apr 2023
Nominations have opened for one of Europe’s biggest health industry awards, Portugal’s €300,000 BIAL Foundation Award in Biomedicine.
Eligible entrants must be responsible for work of a broad biomedical nature of exceptional quality and scientific relevance published within the last decade.
Previous winner of the two-yearly prize was the 36-strong US and German research institutions’ team led by American Drew Weissman, for their 2017 article published in Nature journal detailing the mRNA technology used in Pfizer-BioNTech and Moderna's subsequent Covid-19 vaccines.
Chairman of the BIAL Foundation Luís Portela stated: "This award aims to mobilise the scientific community to share, through nominations, relevant work by researchers from all over the world, with a view to recognising the most important scientific discoveries in the biomedical field."
Nominations can be made up until 30 June with the chosen by an independent and international jury chaired by Ralph Adolphs, Professor of Psychology, Neuroscience and Biology at Caltech (California Institute of Technology).
Other members of the panel include 12 members appointed by the European Research Council, the Council of Rectors of Portuguese Universities, the European Medical Association, the Scientific Board of the BIAL Foundation, previous winners of the BIAL Award, Editors of the British Medical Journal Kamran Abassi and the Editor of the New England Journal of Medicine.
Nominations can be made by the jury, members of the Scientific Board of the BIAL Foundation, previous BIAL Award winners, scientific societies, boards or Deans of medical faculties, heads of leading research institutes, and boards or heads of prestigious Academies. ‘Highly qualified’ researchers may also nominate works but self-nominations are not accepted.
The BIAL Award in Biomedicine takes place biannually during odd-numbered years, alternating with the Prémio BIAL de Medicina Clínica. Patrons include the President Portugal, the Council of Rectors of Portuguese Universities and the European Medical Association. This year’s biomedicine award is the third to be created by the foundation which itself was founded in 1994 to foster the scientific study of human beings in different areas of research.
Regulations and nomination form for the BIAL Award in Biomedicine 2023 are available here.
Pic: Chokniti Khongchum
