Call for nominations

Nominations closed 15 January 2021. 

The Royal Norwegian Society of Sciences and Letters (DKNVS) and the Norwegian University of Science and Technology (NTNU) hereby call for nominations of candidates for the International Gunnerus Award in Sustainability Science 2021.

The award amount is NOK 1 million.(Approx. 94.000 EUR/115.000 USD)

The International Gunnerus Award in Sustainability Science aims to promote science that ensures an effective transition to global sustainable development through groundbreaking policies, societal models or technologies.

Candidate requirements

The Gunnerus Award in Sustainability Science will be presented to an exceptional scientist in the natural sciences, social sciences, technological sciences or the humanities. The candidate’s research must have contributed to sustainable change in practice, either through interdisciplinary work or through work within one of these disciplines.

The Gunnerus Award is given to an individual scientist, but may be shared between two scientists if the fundamental scientific contributions are closely related. The award ceremony will take place in Trondheim, Norway.

We invite universities, research institutions and scientific academies to nominate candidates from the natural sciences, social sciences, technological sciences and humanities for the Gunnerus Award.

Self-nominations are not accepted. The jury receives all nominations and may also nominate candidates for the award. The prize is not given post mortem. Nominees are required to comply with general guidelines for research ethics.

The conferring institutions and Johan Ernst Gunnerus

The international Gunnerus Sustainability Science Award is a collaboration between the Royal Norwegian Society of Sciences and Letters (DKNVS) – Norway’s oldest scientific institution and the original founder of the prize, and the Norwegian University of Science and Technology – Norway’s largest university. The prize is awarded every two years.

The founding father of DKNVS was bishop Johan Ernst Gunnerus (1718-1773) who became Norway’s first internationally acclaimed naturalist. His legacy is still very much felt in Norway and Trondheim today, the city from which he led the Society. Thus, the Award is named in his honor, as the Gunnerus Award in Sustainability Science.