The VinFuture 2026 award recognizes nominations spanning many important science and technology fields. Among them, medicine and healthcare account for the largest proportion with 38.4%. The remaining fields include environment and Earth science accounting for 17%, energy, transportation and construction accounting for 15%, food and agriculture accounting for 10.6%, along with many other science and technology fields.
According to information from the Organizing Committee, this year's nomination partner network reached 17,154 people from 117 countries and territories. This number increased by about 16% compared to the previous season and more than 14 times compared to the first year of organization in 2021.
Notably, there are 1,415 nominees belonging to the 2% group of most cited researchers in the world. Nearly 8,000 experts from many universities, research institutes and international scientific organizations such as MIT, Harvard, Stanford, Oxford, National University of Singapore, Nanyang Technological University or Weizmann Institute.
According to the Organizing Committee, the nominees participate on a voluntary basis to discover and introduce scientific works that can have a positive impact on society. Some scientists in this network have also participated in VinFuture Science and Technology Weeks held in Vietnam to exchange academic knowledge with domestic researchers.
Dr. Le Thai Ha - Managing Director of VinFuture Fund said that the number of nominations and the network of partners increasing year by year shows the increasing interest of the international scientific community in the award. According to Ms. Ha, this is also pressure for the evaluation process to continue to maintain strict scientific criteria and transparency.
After the nomination round, the Preliminary Examination Council will evaluate and select works for the final award consideration round. This process is expected to last until September 2026. The organizers said that the dossier will be appraised through many assessment classes with criteria such as the level of scientific and technological innovation, social impact and sustainability.
After 6 years of organization, VinFuture is mentioned more in the international scientific community as some award-winning scientists continue to be honored at major awards such as the Nobel or Breakthrough. Among them are Dr. Katalin Karikó, Prof. Drew Weissman, Prof. Geoffrey Hinton or Dr. Demis Hassabis.
Many experts believe that the fact that a scientific award organized in Vietnam attracts a wide network of nominations partly shows the increasing attraction of domestic innovation activities, while creating more opportunities to connect Vietnamese researchers with the international scientific community.
