2027 HFSP Nakasone Award

The call for nominations for the 2027 HFSP Nakasone Award will be open from 1 December 2025 until 9 February 2026 (11:59 pm CET) 

The global scientific community was invited to submit nominations for the 2027 HFSP Nakasone Award. The Nomination platform and guidelines will be released soon.

Award

The winner(s) will receive a small unrestricted research grant of 15,000 USD, a commemorative medal, a certificate and will deliver the HFSP Nakasone Lecture at the 2026 HFSP Awardees Meeting.

Nominations & Criteria

Any scientist interested in HFSP is welcome to respond to the open call and nominate candidates for the HFSP Nakasone Award. Both the nominator(s) and the nominee(s) may be from any country. HFSP is committed to diversity, equity and inclusion and particularly encourages nominations of scientists who are women, early career researchers, individuals who are ethnically and/or racially under-represented in the scientific enterprise, and those who hail from equity-seeking countries.

A nomination may be for a single person, or up to two scientists for the same award. These scientists should be co-authors on breakthrough publications or collaborators of key discoveries. Coordinated, multiple nominations for a candidate(s) will be considered as a single nomination and will be merged for the purpose of the review. Self-nominations are not accepted. Members of the HFSPO Board of Trustees and Council of Scientists (COS) are not eligible for nomination and may not nominate candidates to avoid the perception of conflict of interest. 1

Nominations for the 2026 award are now closed. A list of former winners is on the tab HFSP Nakasone Awardees. The HFSP Council of Scientists (CoS) conducts the selection process and the winners will be chosen during the CoS meeting in March 2025.

Selection procedure

The Council of Scientists is responsible for selecting the HFSP Nakasone Award winner(s) and recommending the annual winner(s) to the HFSPO Board of Trustees, which is ultimately responsible for approving the award. The selection process is as follows:

1. Council members receive all nominations and conduct an initial assessment. Members are briefed about HFSPO’s rules and regulations to guide their initial decision-making. Each Councillor can recommend six nominations for further consideration.

2. A first ranking is established based on the number of times a nomination is listed by Council members. This initial ranking enables the Council to further consider nominations for female scientists or for scientists from countries that previously have been under-represented in the HFSP Nakasone Award.

3. The Chair and Vice Chairs of the Council then decide on a short list that determines the number of nominations for the final assessment.

4. Nominations are then assigned to two members of the Council for a final evaluation. Members are asked to prepare short written comments to support their evaluation.

5. At the annual meeting, Council rapporteurs present their assigned nominations by highlighting the scientific merits as outlined in the call for nominations.

6. A member of the HFSPO Board of Trustees follows the discussion of the Council as an independent ex officio observer.

7. Following discussion, Council members vote on all shortlisted nominations. The nomination with the highest number of votes is declared the winner(s).

8. The Secretariat, on behalf of the Council Chair, then prepares a recommendation of the winner (s), including a written statement by the observer, which is submitted for approval by the Board of Trustees.