Conditions

Object

The BBVA Foundation Frontiers of Knowledge Awards recognize fundamental contributions in a broad array of areas of scientific knowledge, technology, humanities and artistic creation, as listed in point 2 of these call conditions.

Categories

The disciplines and domains of the BBVA Foundation Frontiers of Knowledge Awards are:

  1. Basic Sciences (Physics, Chemistry, Mathematics)
  2. Biology and Biomedicine
  3. Information and Communication Technologies
  4. Climate Change and Environmental Sciences
  5. Economics, Finance and Management
  6. Humanities
  7. Social Sciences
  8. Music and Opera

The Climate Change and Environmental Sciences award recognizes both research endeavors in these two areas and impactful actions informed by the best science. The Music and Opera category encompasses composition, instrumental and vocal performance, musical and stage direction, and video art creation associated with musical or operatic works.

Award content

The BBVA Foundation Frontiers of Knowledge Awards consist of 400,000 euros, a diploma and a commemorative artwork in each of their eight categories.

In the event that an award is shared by more than one person, its monetary amount will be divided equally among all recipients.

All awards, in whatever category, will be subject to the withholding and other taxes prescribed by current legislation, which will be deducted from their total amount.

Candidate requirements

Candidates may be one or more natural persons of any nationality, without limitation of number, that have made independent or convergent contributions to a given advance, whether due to a formal collaboration (with the nominees belonging to one or more groups) or parallel working. The awards are also open to scientific or cultural organizations that can be collectively credited with exceptional contributions to sci- entific knowledge, cultural creation, the fight against climate change or the conservation of the natural environment.

Awards may not be granted posthumously.

Nomination

Self-nomination is not permitted.

Any scientific or cultural organization or institution can submit nominations, following their own internal procedures. Among them:

  • Scientific or artistic societies and organizations
  • National and regional academies of science or culture
  • Public or private R&D centers
  • University schools, departments or institutes and research or teaching institutes
  • Hospital departments and biomedical research centers
  • Schools of music
  • Orchestras, orchestra associations, opera theaters and opera associations
  • Public agencies and supranational, national or regional organizations substantially engaged in analysis and/or activities relating to climate change and environmental conservation
  • Other scientific, cultural and environmental organizations

Winners of the Nobel Prize in any of its categories are likewise eligible to nominate, as are past winners of the BBVA Foundation Frontiers of Knowledge Awards.

The BBVA Foundation may also invite nominations from researchers and cultural creators that have made outstanding contributions in their respective fields, establishing consultative or advisory panels to this end.

The same organization, institution or individual nominator may put forward more than one candidate without limitation of number, but no candidate may be nominated in more than one award category.

Entry submission and documentation

The nomination period will open on January 1, 2024 and conclude at 16:00 GMT on June 30 of the same year.

All nominations should be submitted using the dedicated form on this website.

Both nominations and the accompanying documentation must be submitted in English only.

In the event that various organizations or individuals wish to jointly or coordinately submit a nomination, they should appoint a nomination coordinator who will merge all the materials into a single entry.

The nominating institution or individual must provide the following information and documentation, as specified at the above web address:

  1. Award category for which the candidate is nominated
  2. Name of the nominating institution and officer/body, with the corresponding contact data (postal and email address, plus landline and cell phone numbers)
  3. Letter of nomination signed by the nominating officer/body
  4. Candidate particulars including institutional affiliation and contact data
  5. Description of the salient contributions of the candidate and reasoned arguments for the nomination (maximum of three pages, single spaced)
  6. Candidate’s curriculum vitae

If an entry refers to one or several research teams or several persons that have made convergent contributions to a given advance as a result of parallel working, the nominating officer/body should provide the information referred to in points 4 and 6 above for all members of the candidature.

With regard to point 5, the nominator should provide a single descriptive narrative including an account of the role performed by each member. This description need only be provided if the letter of nomination does not give an account of the candidate’s salient contributions or if it is necessary to expand on the information contained therein.

The BBVA Foundation will send an email to all nominators confirming the acceptance of the entry, and facilitating a reference number which should be quoted in all subsequent correspondence.

If the documentation furnished is incomplete or contains correctable errors, the BBVA Foundation will notify the nominator to this effect, granting a non-extendible term of thirty calendar days in which to rectify the flaws detected, so the entry may be accepted for consideration.

The BBVA Foundation undertakes to preserve the confidentiality of all documentation received, and will in no event provide itemized or individual information on the nominations received or on the deliberations of the award committees. The BBVA Foundation will publish only the names of those persons or institutions that have nominated a winning candidate.

Selection process

Step 1: Evaluation support panels

The BBVA Foundation together with the Spanish National Research Council (CSIC) will appoint a support panel to evaluate the nominations received in each category of the BBVA Foundation Frontiers of Knowledge Awards.

These panels will be formed by leading experts in the area concerned, drawn from CSIC, universities, hospitals and other research, cultural or artistic centers.

They will provide the BBVA Foundation with a reasoned rank order of finalists, which the Foundation will forward to the corresponding award committee, accompanied by a full list of entries and the scores assigned to each by reference to the best metrics of the subject area.

Step 2: Committees

The eight committees will comprise experts of acknowledged prestige in the corresponding area and will be appointed by the BBVA Foundation. The chair of each committee will be designated by the current CSIC president from a list of between five and ten researchers or cultural practitioners drawn up by the BBVA Foundation.

Since the Frontiers Awards in each category are intended to recognize specific contributions, the committees will take an integral view of the nominations received in favor of one or more persons or organizations, and may choose to merge two or more separate entries when it considers that they have made a convergent contribution to a given advance.

In the case of nominations made up of several persons or organizations, the committee may also elect to confine the award to one or some of its members in recognition of their differential contribution.

If a nomination is considered to be incomplete, in the sense of including only some of the persons or organizations generally acknowledged to be among the principal authors of the stated contribution, the committee will refrain from granting it the award. Nor will the committee be able to add the names of individuals or organizations in order to round off such nominations.

The committee may reach its decision unanimously or by simple majority, with the corresponding modality put on record in the award certificate.

Committees’ decisions will in no event be open to appeal, including the decision to leave the award vacant.

The composition of the support panel and award committee in each category, and the contents of the award certificate with the committee’s citation will be publicly disclosed through the BBVA Foundation website.

Award decision and presentation ceremony

The BBVA Foundation Frontiers of Knowledge Awards will be decided before April 30, 2025.

The Frontiers Awards will be presented at a formal ceremony to be held during June 2025 in the Euskalduna Bilbao center. A gala concert will take place the evening before in the same venue.

Laureates must agree to attend the presentation ceremony. In the case of awards going to teams, these will be represented by no more than three of their members.

If an award goes to a legal person, it must furnish the following documents after being notified of the award decision:

  • A copy of its bylaws
  • A copy of its tax identification number
  • A statement from the pertinent governing body of the organization or institution confirming its acceptance of the award

Acceptance

The fact of participating in the present edition of the BBVA Foundation Frontiers of Knowledge Awards signifies the acceptance of its conditions and award decisions, and renunciation of any claim in their respect on the part of both nominators and nominees.

CALENDAR

16th EDITION CALL OPENS

15th EDITION AWARDS ANNOUNCEMENT

15th EDITION PRESENTATION CEREMONY

16th EDITION CALL CLOSES

16th EDITION AWARDS ANNOUNCEMENT


Getting started | REGISTRATION

To begin a submission under this call, you must first enter a valid email address. You will be sent a message to this account with a form access password, which you will need to complete the form in various sessions, saving partially each time.

This registration email, which is linked to the person filling in the form, can be changed at any point in the process and does not have to coincide with the email address of the head of the institution or of the candidates themselves.

Before moving on to select the award category you are entering for, you must accept the call conditions and Personal Data Processing terms.

STEP 1 | CATEGORY

Select the award category you wish the candidate to compete in according to their merits.

  • Basic Sciences (Physics, Chemistry, Mathematics)
    • Physics
    • Chemistry
    • Mathematics
  • Biology and Biomedicine
    • Biology
    • Biomedicine
  • Information and Communication Technologies
  • Climate Change and Environmental Sciences
    • Climate Change
    • Environmental Science
    • Earth Science
    • Conservation Biology
  • Economics, Finance and Management
  • Humanities
    • Philosophy
    • Philology
    • Literature
    • Linguistics
    • History
    • Others
  • Social Sciences
    • Law
    • Political Science
    • Sociology
    • Anthropology
    • Demography
    • Human Geography
    • Psychology
    • Education Sciences
    • Others
  • Music and Opera
    • Music
    • Opera

STEP 2 | NOMINATOR

Each nomination may have a maximum of thirty nominators.

To add or remove a nominator, use the designated buttons provided in the form.

All nominators must provide the following information and documentation:

A. Institution: Choose those categories that best fit your institution and/or describe your situation as a nominator.

B. Nominator particulars: The email address provided will be the one used by the BBVA Foundation in subsequent correspondence. We also recommend that you include the international call prefix in the telephone field.

C. Letter of nomination: The nomination coordinator should provide a signed letter of nomination. Remaining nominators are also advised to provide a signed letter. The file should be in .pdf format and no larger than 4MB.

 

STEP 3 | CANDIDATE

You should first specify whether the candidate is an “individual” (natural person) or “organization” (legal person). The subsequent fields will vary according to your choice.

To add or remove a candidate, use the designated buttons provided in the form.

A. Nominated for: Provide a summary – max. 1000 characters with spaces – of the candidate or candidates’ achievements, including the main reasons for their nomination. This should be a self-standing narrative and not simply an excerpt from or reference to the candidate’s CV or the document of salient contributions.

B. Candidate particulars: Including the institutional affiliation and contact information of each candidate.

Please note that in the event that your nomination is selected by the committee, the BBVA Foundation will contact the laureate(s) by phone as soon as the committee meeting ends – probably not before 17:00 GMT. For this reason, we recommend that you provide a direct or cell phone number.

C. Specialty: Succinctly specify the candidate’s specialist area within the award category corresponding to your nomination.

D. Candidate’s salient contributions: This document (maximum of 3 pages, single spaced) should take the form of a continuous narrative describing the nature and importance of the contributions for which the candidate is being nominated, and the reasons why the nominator believes they merit the award. The file should be in .pdf format and no larger than 4MB.

This description need only be provided if the letter of nomination does not give an account of the candidate’s salient contributions or if it is necessary to expand on the information contained therein.

When more than one candidate is being nominated, the description should include each one’s specific input to the above global contribution, and whether it was arrived at through collaborative working (as a team) or independently (working in parallel). It should in no event exceed the 3 single-spaced pages specified, regardless of whether the entry comprises one or more persons and/or institutions.

E. Candidate’s CV: Provide for each person nominated. This document is not required in the case of organizations.

STEP 4 | CONFIRM DETAILS

Before finishing your nomination, you can check that the data entered in the various sections are correct by directly accessing the steps of the form through the corresponding tabs.

You can then submit your nomination by pressing the “Confirm nomination” button on the bottom right of the form.

The next screen that comes up will show the date and time of your submission (Spanish standard time) and a reference number that you should quote in all subsequent correspondence with the BBVA Foundation. You can also download a nomination summary in .pdf format. This same information will be sent to all nominators and to the registration email address appearing in the form.

Once the nomination period has closed, you can check the status of your entry through our website using the nomination reference number and the registration email.

It will not be possible to access or make subsequent changes to completed and submitted forms.

 


 

FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS

DOWNLOAD FAQs
What do the BBVA Foundation Frontiers of Knowledge Awards set out to recognize?

These awards recognize fundamental contributions in a broad array of areas of scientific knowledge, technology, humanities and artistic creation.

They are not intended to be lifetime achievement awards.

What knowledge areas do the awards address?

The awards are divided into eight categories:

  1. Basic Sciences (Physics, Chemistry, Mathematics)
  2. Biology and Biomedicine
  3. Information and Communication Technologies
  4. Climate Change and Environmental Sciences
  5. Economics, Finance and Management
  6. Humanities
  7. Social Sciences
  8. Music and Opera

The Climate Change and Environmental Sciences award recognizes both research endeavors in these two areas and impactful actions informed by the best science. The Music and Opera category encompasses composition, instrumental and vocal performance, musical and stage direction, and video art creation associated with musical or operatic works.

Who can be a candidate?

Candidates may be one or more natural persons of any nationality, without limitation of number, that have made independent or convergent contributions to a given advance, whether due to a formal collaboration (with the nominees belonging to one or more groups) or parallel working.

The awards are also open to scientific or cultural organizations that can be collectively credited with exceptional contributions to scientific knowledge, cultural creation, the fight against climate change or the conservation of the natural environment.

Awards may not be granted posthumously.

Is it possible to submit a joint candidature comprising more than one person?

Yes, as long as the candidates have made convergent contributions to a given advance, whether due to a formal collaboration (with nominees belonging to one or more groups) or parallel working. Nominations can also consist of several scientific or cultural organizations.

Is it possible to submit a project for the awards?

No.

What do the awards comprise?

Awards in each category come with 400,000 euros prize money, a diploma and a commemorative artwork.

What happens with the prize money if the winning entry is made up of various persons or organizations?

In such cases, the monetary amount will be divided equally among all recipients.

Who can nominate?

Self-nomination is not permitted.

Any scientific or cultural organization or institution can submit nominations. Among them:

  • Scientific or artistic societies and organizations
  • National and regional academies of science or culture
  • Public or private R&D centers
  • University schools, departments or institutes and research or teaching institutes
  • Hospital departments and biomedical research centers
  • Schools of music
  • Orchestras, orchestra associations, opera theaters and opera associations
  • Public agencies and supranational, national or regional organizations substantially engaged in analysis and/or activities relating to climate change and environmental conservation
  • Other scientific, cultural and environmental organizations

Winners of the Nobel Prize in any of its categories are likewise eligible to nominate, as are past winners of the BBVA Foundation Frontiers of Knowledge Awards.

The BBVA Foundation may also invite nominations from researchers and cultural creators that have made outstanding contributions in their respective fields, establishing consultative or advisory panels to this end.

Can I submit a nomination even if I haven’t been expressly invited to do so by the BBVA Foundation?

Yes. In addition to the cases listed in the above question, any researcher or cultural creator can submit a nomination for a colleague or an organization that has made some outstanding contribution in their field.

Can I put myself forward as a candidate?

No, no person or organization can nominate themselves. The awards are confined to indirect nominations.

Is it possible to nominate someone posthumously?

No.

Can the same organization, institution or individual nominator submit more than one entry?

Yes, any organization, institution or individual nominator can put forward more than one candidate in the same or different categories. What they cannot do is nominate the same candidate in more than one award category.

Can the same candidate be proposed by more than one nominator?

Yes, the submission form allows up to 30 nominators. The nomination coordinator should provide a signed letter of nomination. Remaining nominators are also advised to provide a signed letter.

Can an organization nominate a candidate from its own ranks?

Yes, nominators are free to put forward candidates belonging to their own organization and/or any other.

Can a natural person nominate the organization to which they belong?

No. Nominators may in no event put forward the institution or organization to which they belong.

Are nominations welcome from any country?

Yes, the BBVA Foundation Frontiers of Knowledge Awards are fully international in scope.

What is the submission period for nominations?

From January 1, 2024 until 16:00 GMT on June 30, 2024.

How do I nominate a candidate?

All entries must be submitted through the nomination form available on the BBVA Foundation website.

You are advised to read the instructions for completing the form.

If I wish to nominate, what information and documentation should I gather together before starting to complete the online form?

  1. Award category for which the candidate is
  2. Name of the nominating institution and officer/body, with the corresponding contact data (postal and email address and phone number). Each entry may have up to a maximum of 30 nominators.
  3. Letter(s) of nomination signed by the nomination Remaining nominators are also advised to provide a signed letter.
  4. Candidate particulars including institutional affiliation and contact data. In the case of convergent candidatures, you should provide the particulars of each member.
  5. Description of the salient contributions of the candidate and reasoned arguments for the nomination (maximum of 3 pages, single spaced). In the case of convergent candidatures, you should provide a single descriptive narrative including an account of the role performed by each member. Note that this description document need only be provided if the letter of nomination does not give an account of the candidate’s salient contributions or if it is necessary to expand on the information contained therein.
  6. Candidate’s curriculum vitae. This document will not be necessary if the nominee is an organization or institution. In the case of convergent candidatures, you should provide a CV for each member.

How should I structure the description of the candidate or candidates’ salient contributions?

This should take the form of a continuous narrative describing the nature and importance of the contribution for which the person or institution is being nominated, and the reasons why the nominator believes they merit the award. Note that this description document need only be provided if the letter of nomination does not give an account of the candidate’s salient contributions or if it is necessary to expand on the information contained therein.

When more than one candidate is being nominated, this description should include each one’s specific input to the above global contribution, and whether it was arrived at through collaborative working (as a team) or independently (working in parallel).

Is it possible to attach more than one letter of nomination for the same entry?

Yes, the online form allows for up to 30 nominators.

In the event that various organizations or individuals wish to jointly or coordinately submit a nomination, they should appoint a nomination coordinator who will merge all the materials into a single entry.

In what language should the nomination documents be submitted?

Exclusively in English.

How do I go about completing the nomination?

Before finishing your nomination, you can check that the data entered in the various sections are correct by directly accessing the steps of the form through the corresponding tabs.

You can then submit your nomination by pressing the “Confirm nomination” button on the bottom right of the form.

The next screen that comes up will show the date and time of your submission (Spanish standard time) and a reference number that you should quote in all subsequent correspondence with the BBVA Foundation. You can also download a nomination summary in .pdf format. This same information will sent to all nominators and to the registration email address appearing in the form.

Once the nomination period has closed, you can check the status of your entry through our website using the nomination reference number and the registration email.

What happens if the form I submit contains errors or is incomplete?

The BBVA Foundation will send you an email granting a non-extendible term of thirty calendar days from that date in which to rectify the flaws detected, so the entry may be accepted for consideration.

How are award entries evaluated?

Entries will be evaluated in two stages. Firstly, by evaluation support panels formed by leading experts in the area concerned, drawn from the Spanish National Research Council (CSIC), universities, hospitals and other research, cultural or artistic centers, who will provide the BBVA Foundation with a reasoned rank order of finalists.

In the second stage, the BBVA Foundation will forward this shortlist to the corresponding award committee, accompanied by a full list of entries and the scores assigned to each by reference to the best metrics of the subject area.

These committees will be made up of experts of international prestige in the corresponding area, and the final award decision will be theirs alone.

The committee may choose to merge two or more separate entries when it considers that they have made a convergent contribution to a given advance. It may also elect to confine the award to just one or several members of a given candidature.

If a nomination is considered to be incomplete, in the sense of including only some of the persons or organizations generally acknowledged to be among the principal authors of the stated contribution, the committee will refrain from granting it the award. Nor will the committee be able to add the names of individuals or organizations in order to round off such nominations.

The committees’ decisions will in no event be open to appeal, including the decision to leave the award vacant.

When will the awards be decided?

Before April 30, 2025.

What happens if the award goes to my entry?

The BBVA Foundation will notify the laureate(s) by phone as soon as the committee communicates its decision, probably not before 17:00 GMT. It is therefore advisable for nominators to include a direct or cell phone number among the contact details provided for the candidate(s).

If the candidate accepts the award, they will be reminded that they must agree to attend the presentation ceremony and other events organized for the occasion.

The BBVA Foundation will also contact the nominator to notify them of the committee’s decision.

When will the award ceremony take place?

The awards will be presented at a formal ceremony to be held during June 2025 in the Euskalduna Bilbao center, preceded the evening before by a gala concert.

What happens if the award goes to a legal person?

The organization or institution must provide the following additional documents:

  • Copy of its bylaws
  • Copy of its tax identification number
  • A statement from its governing bodies confirming their acceptance of the award

What should I do if I have further questions?

If your question has not been answered here, please contact the BBVA Foundation at the email address awards-info@fbbva.es. We will be happy to assist you.