Created to distinguish the most remarkable scientific discoveries in the biomedical field, this international award has a growing reputation as a prelude to the Nobel Prize since it distinguished two authors in a former edition, who were subsequently honoured with the Nobel Prize in Medicine.
Nominations for the 4th edition of the BIAL Foundation ’s international award, the BIAL Award in Biomedicine, are open until 30 June. This edition, with a significant increase in the prize amount to 350,000 Euro , seeks to recognise work published in the broad biomedical field within the last 10 years, with results of exceptional quality and scientific relevance.
An independent Jury will choose the winning work among the high-quality empirical research papers in biomedicine published from 2016 onwards in peer-reviewed journals . The articles should be nominated by Scientific Societies, Heads of Medical Schools, Heads of Biomedical Research Institutes, Heads of prestigious Academies, Members of the Jury, Members of the Scientific Board of the BIAL Foundation, and previous winners of the BIAL Award. Self-nominations are not allowed.
Chaired by neuroscientist Ralph Adolphs, the Jury includes 12 more members designated by the European Research Council, Council of Rectors of Portuguese Universities, European Medical Association, Scientific Board of the BIAL Foundation, previous winners of the BIAL Award and editors of the British Medical Journal and the New England Journal of Medicine.
Ralph Adolphs challenges organised groups of scientists to nominate outstanding papers and stresses that “ nominations are welcomed for articles authored by scientists at any stage of their career, and from any country around the world ”.
The chairman of the BIAL Foundation, Luís Portela, emphasises that “ this Award aims to distinguish the work that has most contributed to improving the health conditions of humanity ” and gives the example of “Drew Weissman and Katalin Karikó, co-authors of the winning paper of the 2021 edition, who were later awarded the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine”.
In the latest edition, this award honoured an article published in Nature in 2019 that represents pioneering research for understanding human cancer, specifically glioblastoma, a very aggressive type of brain tumour with an average survival time of just a year and a half. The winning team was led by Varun Venkataramani, Frank Winkler, and Thomas Kuner from Heidelberg University.
More information about this edition is available here .