The BBVA Foundation Frontiers of Knowledge Awards recognize and encourage world-class research and cultural creation, prizing contributions of singular impact for their originality and significance. 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.

Nominations are invited from members of the public for the 8th MIDORI Prize for Biodiversity.

Co-organized by AEON Environmental Foundation and the Secretariat of the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD), the Prize is awarded to individuals who make outstanding contributions to global biodiversity-related objectives, including the conservation and sustainable use of biodiversity, and other environmental issues such as climate change.

The 2024 edition will acknowledge contributions to the implementation of the Kunming-Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework, also known as the Biodiversity Plan, and it’s four overarching goals to protect and restore nature, to prosper with nature, to share benefits fairly, and to invest and collaborate for nature. Agreed in a landmark decision of CBD COP 15 in December 2022, the Biodiversity Plan is the world’s masterplan to halt and reverse the loss of biodiversity.

Established by AEON Environmental Foundation during the 2010 International Year of Biodiversity, the Prize has been awarded to biodiversity champions in several fields, including policymaking, science and civil society, reflecting the need for a whole-of-society endeavor—a seminal principle that underpinned the design of the Biodiversity Plan and its 23 targets (to be achieved by 2023). Up to now, 19 individuals from 17 countries have received the prize.

The annual Prize celebrates the legacy of Stein Rokkan, a true pioneer in comparative social science research. The Stein Rokkan Prize for Comparative Social Science Research is presented by the International Science Council, the University of Bergen and the European Consortium for Political Research (ECPR). Thanks to the generosity of the University of Bergen, it carries a prize fund of €5,000.

The prize is open to works in comparative studies from all social science disciplines. It is given to a submission deemed by the Jury to be a substantial and original contribution in comparative social science research.