The 2026 VinFuture Prize Receives More Than 1,800 Nominations as Its Global Nomination Network Expands Fourteenfold After Six Years
At the close of the nomination period for the 2026 season, the VinFuture Prize, a global science and technology prize recorded 1,819 nominations from around the world, supported by a network of more than 17,000 nominators spanning 117 countries and territories.
HANOI, VIETNAM - Media OutReach Newswire - 18 May 2026 - After six seasons, the VinFuture Prize has not only expanded its influence in the international scientific community, but has also affirmed its position as a prestigious global prize dedicated to identifying and honoring breakthroughs with profound significance for the future of humanity. H.E. Tran Thanh Man, Chairman of the National Assembly of Vietnam, presents the 2025 VinFuture Grand Prize to the scientists whose pioneering contributions led to the discovery and development of the HPV vaccine. In the 2026 season, nominations in medicine and healthcare continue to account for the largest share (38.4%), alongside other critical fields including environmental and earth sciences, energy, transportation and construction, as well as food and agriculture. Photo courtesy of VinFuture.
A Global Network Bringing Together More Than 17,000 Outstanding Minds
This year's VinFuture nominations span a wide range of critical fields, including medicine and healthcare (38.4%), environmental and earth sciences (17%), energy, transportation, and construction (15%), food and agriculture (10.6%), as well as other scientific and technological disciplines (19%).
At the same time, the official nominator network of the VinFuture Prize has continued to expand substantially, reaching 17,154 nominators from 117 countries and territories across all five continents. This represents an increase of approximately 16% compared with the 2025 season and a more than fourteenfold expansion compared with the inaugural season in 2021. Moreover, the number of countries and territories represented within the nominator network has nearly doubled over the past six years.
Notably, 1,415 nominators for the 2026 VinFuture Prize are ranked among the world's top 2% most-cited researchers. Nearly 8,000 experts are affiliated with leading universities, research institutes, and scientific organizations worldwide, including Australian Academy of Science, Massachusetts Institute of Technology (United States), Stanford University (United States), Harvard University (United States), University of California, Berkeley (United States), University of Oxford (United Kingdom), National University of Singapore (Singapore), Nanyang Technological University (Singapore), and Weizmann Institute of Science (Israel), among others.
Participating on a voluntary basis, these nominators play a vital role in identifying and recommending outstanding scientific innovations capable of generating meaningful and lasting improvements to the lives of billions of people worldwide. They also contribute significantly to extending the global reach of the VinFuture Prize within the international scientific community and promoting cross-border academic connections. Several distinguished nominators have traveled to Vietnam during the 2024 and 2025 VinFuture Sci-Tech Weeks to connect and exchange knowledge directly with the Vietnamese scientific community.
"The continued growth in both the number of nominations and our network of more than 17,000 nominators reflects the increasing confidence that leading scientists and prestigious institutions around the world place in VinFuture Prize and its mission to identify and honor scientific and technological innovations with meaningful impact on humanity. This momentum also reinforces our commitment to upholding rigorous and transparent evaluation standards, while advancing a long-term vision of connecting global intellect in pursuit of a better future for all," said Dr. Thai-Ha Le, Managing Director of the VinFuture Foundation.
Following the conclusion of the nomination period, the Pre-Screening Committee will begin the process of evaluating and selecting the most outstanding scientific works for consideration by the VinFuture Prize Council in the final judging round, which is expected to continue through early September 2026. All nominations will undergo a rigorous multi-layer evaluation process based on stringent international standards to ensure the highest levels of scientific integrity, fairness, and transparency.
The core evaluation criteria include the degree of scientific and technological advancement, the potential for meaningful impact on human life, as well as the scale and long-term sustainability of the proposed innovations.
Vietnam's Growing Imprint on the Global Innovation Map
After six seasons, the VinFuture Prize has firmly established its reputation and standing within the global science and technology landscape. Several VinFuture Laureates have subsequently been honored by some of the world's most prestigious scientific awards, including the Nobel Prize, the Queen Elizabeth Prize for Engineering, and the Breakthrough Prize, demonstrating VinFuture's ability to recognize, at an early stage, innovations with foundational significance for the future of humanity.
Notable examples include Prof. Omar Yaghi (2021 VinFuture Special Prize; 2025 Nobel Prize in Chemistry); Dr. Katalin Karikó and Prof. Drew Weissman (2021 VinFuture Grand Prize; 2023 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine); Drs. Demis Hassabis and John Jumper (2022 VinFuture Special Prize; 2024 Nobel Prize in Chemistry); Prof. Geoffrey Hinton (2024 VinFuture Grand Prize; 2024 Nobel Prize in Physics); as well as Prof. Yoshua Bengio, Prof. Yann LeCun, Prof. Geoffrey Hinton, Mr. Jensen Huang, and Prof. Fei-Fei Li (2024 VinFuture Grand Prize; 2025 Queen Elizabeth Prize for Engineering). Additional examples include Prof. Daniel Drucker, Prof. Joel Habener, Prof. Jens Juul Holst, and Assoc. Prof. Svetlana Mojsov (2023 VinFuture Special Prize), who later received the 2025 Breakthrough Prize.
Beyond recognizing transformative scientific achievements, VinFuture has become a point of convergence for knowledge, collaboration, and the aspiration to serve humanity. Over the course of six seasons, VinFuture has contributed to shaping a more open, connected, and inspiring scientific ecosystem, while positioning Vietnam as an increasingly important destination on the global innovation map.
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