UNESCO-Al Fozan International Prize for Young Scientists in STEM 2026: US$50,000 Each for Five Researchers Under 40, One From Every UNESCO Region — Nominations Close 30 November

UNESCO-Al Fozan International Prize for Young Scientists in STEM 2026: US$50,000 Each for Five Researchers Under 40, One From Every UNESCO Region — Nominations Close 30 November

Most international science prizes reward a career already made. This one is designed to catch people mid-flight. The UNESCO-Al Fozan International Prize for the Promotion of Young Scientists in Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics gives US$50,000, a medal, and a diploma to five people who are still under 40 — and it deliberately spreads those five awards across UNESCO’s five geographic regions, so a candidate in Nairobi or Amman is not competing head-to-head with a candidate in Boston.

The third edition is open now. UNESCO announced the call on 27 February 2026, and nominations and applications close on 30 November 2026 at midnight, UTC+1. The prize is awarded every two years, which means the next realistic chance after this one is roughly 2028. If you are 38 or 39 today, this is the edition that matters.

There is one structural feature that catches people out, and it is worth stating before anything else: self-nomination is not considered. You cannot simply fill in a form and be done. Your file has to be backed by an eligible nominating entity — a government, a UNESCO Chair, an international scientific union, a partner NGO, or the leadership of a university. That requirement shapes the entire timeline, and it is why November is closer than it looks.

Key Details

What the Prize Offers

Each of the five laureates receives US$50,000, a medal, and a diploma. UNESCO does not tie the money to a project budget or a work plan, and the published materials do not describe reporting obligations attached to the cash. In practice, the award functions as recognition money rather than project money — it lands on the person, not on a grant line at their institution.

The second component is visibility, and for an early-career scientist it may be worth more than the cheque. The prize is presented at a UNESCO ceremony; the second edition was celebrated on 19 September 2025, and the first edition’s ceremony took place in June 2023. A UNESCO laureate title travels well through national science ministries, funding panels, and university promotion committees, particularly in countries where an international endorsement carries weight in domestic recruitment and grant decisions. The exact date and venue of the third edition ceremony are not confirmed in the current call.

The prize is funded by the Al Fozan Foundation, a Saudi philanthropic foundation, and administered by UNESCO’s Natural Sciences Sector in Paris.

Who This Prize Is For

The prize deliberately reads STEM contribution broadly. UNESCO recognises significant achievements in any one of three tracks:

• Research in STEM, including emerging technologies. The conventional route — a body of published, peer-reviewed work with demonstrable impact.
• STEM education, dissemination of research findings, creativity and innovation. This covers people who build curricula, run science outreach at national scale, translate research for the public, or commercialise an invention.
• International or regional cooperation in STEM. Network builders: people who have created cross-border research programmes, shared infrastructure, or scientific partnerships between countries.

That second and third track matter. A candidate who runs a national STEM education programme reaching tens of thousands of girls, or who assembled a regional research consortium, is on the same footing as a candidate with a strong publication record. UNESCO’s stated purpose is work “conducive to socio-economic transformation and development on a global scale” — impact on society, not citation count alone.

UNESCO also states plainly that nominations of young women scientists are strongly encouraged, in service of gender balance in STEM. This is not a women-only prize, but the framing is explicit and nominating institutions should read it as a signal about who they put forward.

Eligibility: The Rules That Decide Most Files

The hard eligibility rules are short, which means they are easy to check and unforgiving when missed.

Age. Candidates must be under 40 years old at the application deadline — that is, at 30 November 2026. Not at the ceremony, not at the point the nomination letter is signed. If you turn 40 on 29 November 2026, you are out. Confirm your date of birth against the deadline before you invest a week in the file.

A nominator. Self-nomination shall not be considered. A candidate may start an application in the portal, but it has to be endorsed by an eligible nominating entity to be valid.

Language. Every part of the application and every supporting document must be in English or French. If your strongest evidence — a national award citation, a ministry letter, a major publication — exists only in another language, budget time for translation.

Completeness and timing. UNESCO states that incomplete or late submissions are rejected. There is no published appeals route and no indication of a grace period.

Who Can Nominate You, and How to Secure One

Only these entities may submit nominations:

• Governments of UNESCO Member States, acting in consultation with their National Commissions for UNESCO
• Non-governmental organisations in official partnership with UNESCO
• UNESCO Chairs
• UNESCO Category 2 institutes and centres
• International scientific unions
• Universities — but specifically department heads, deans, or management professionals, not individual faculty members acting alone

Each nominating entity may nominate a maximum of three candidates, submitted separately.

There are two mechanics for getting the endorsement in. In the first, the nominator writes a nomination letter on official letterhead, signed, with the nominator’s contact details and an institutional stamp where available, and the candidate uploads it. In the second, the nominator registers directly in the portal as a nominator and submits the endorsement themselves, identifying the candidate either by application number or by email address.

The practical implication: decide early which mechanic you are using, and tell your nominator which one. The most common failure mode in nomination-gated prizes is a candidate who assumes their dean is submitting while the dean assumes the candidate is uploading a letter they already emailed over.

If you do not have an obvious nominator, work outward in this order. Start with your own university’s dean or department head — the least bureaucratic route. If that is closed, check whether your institution hosts a UNESCO Chair (there are over a thousand worldwide, and the holder is an eligible nominator in their own right). Then contact your National Commission for UNESCO, which every Member State maintains and which exists precisely to channel this kind of nomination. International scientific unions — the disciplinary bodies in your field — are the fourth route, and they generally want to see that you are already active in their community.

Approach nominators in September at the latest. Universities and national commissions run on committee time, and an internal selection round to pick three candidates from a larger pool takes weeks on its own.

What Goes Into the Application

Candidates must supply:

• A description of personal background and achievements
• A summary of their work, publications, and contributions
• A statement explaining how their work aligns with the objectives of the Prize
• The nomination letter or nominator endorsement described above
• All of the above in English or French

The alignment statement is the piece most candidates under-write, and it is the piece a jury reads most closely. UNESCO’s objectives are specific and stated: boosting research, education and global cooperation in service of the Sustainable Development Goals; recognising innovators whose work drives socio-economic progress; and encouraging interest in science, particularly among women and girls, to advance gender equality and scientific careers. A statement that recites your CV in prose form does not answer that. A statement that names the development problem your work addresses, the population affected, and what changed because of you does.

Preparation Strategy

Pick one of the three tracks and lead with it. A file that claims equal excellence in research, education, and international cooperation usually reads as thin in all three. Choose the strongest, build the file around it, and treat the other two as supporting material.

Quantify societal impact, not just output. “Twelve papers in Q1 journals” is an input. “A diagnostic protocol adopted by the national health service in three countries, covering 4 million people” is an outcome. The prize criteria are written around transformation and development at scale — write to that.

Show reach beyond your own lab. Every track rewards work that left the building: technology transferred, a curriculum adopted, a consortium formed, a method taken up by other groups. Name the institutions and people who took it up, and where possible attach evidence — an adoption letter, a ministry citation, a partnership agreement.

Use independent verification. A jury cannot check your claims directly. Third-party evidence — national awards, government letters, press coverage from credible outlets, adoption records — does that work for them.

Write for a multidisciplinary, multilingual jury. Your reader will be a senior scientist, but very likely not from your subfield, and possibly reading in their second language. Define technical terms once. Lead each section with a plain sentence that states the point.

Get your documents translated properly. Machine translation of a formal ministry citation into English or French is visible, and it undercuts an otherwise strong file.

Common Mistakes

• Assuming you can apply alone. The single biggest cause of rejected files in nomination-gated prizes. Start the nominator conversation before you start writing.
• Missing the age rule by weeks. Check your date of birth against 30 November 2026 first, before anything else.
• Leaving the nominator until November. Institutional signatures take longer than the writing does, and holidays fall in the window.
• Submitting materials in another language. English or French only — no exceptions are published.
• Submitting an incomplete file. UNESCO states that incomplete submissions are rejected. There is no partial-credit review.
• Writing an alignment statement that is really a biography. Answer what UNESCO asked: how does your work serve the Prize’s stated objectives?
• Ignoring the regional structure. You are competing within your UNESCO region, not against the whole world. Frame your impact in terms your regional peers and jurors will recognise as significant.

Frequently Asked Questions

Can I apply directly, without a nominator? You can create an application in the portal, but it will not be considered on its own. UNESCO states that self-nomination shall not be considered. An eligible nominating entity must endorse the file.

How old is too old? You must be under 40 at the application deadline, 30 November 2026.

Is the prize restricted by nationality? No. It is open across all five UNESCO regions, with one laureate selected per region.

What can the US$50,000 be spent on? The published materials describe the award as a prize to the laureate, with a medal and diploma, rather than a project grant with a restricted budget. No spending restrictions or reporting requirements are stated in the current call.

How many candidates can my university put forward? A maximum of three, each submitted separately.

Does the prize favour research over teaching? No. STEM education and dissemination, and international or regional cooperation, are named as eligible achievement categories alongside research.

When is the award ceremony? Not confirmed for the third edition. Previous ceremonies were held in June 2023 and on 19 September 2025.

Can I reapply if I am not selected? The call does not state a bar on reapplying, but the prize is biennial, so the next edition would fall roughly two years later — and the under-40 rule would apply again at that later deadline.

Official Links and Contacts

• Prize overview: https://www.unesco.org/en/prizes/al-fozan
• Nomination and application process: https://www.unesco.org/en/prizes/al-fozan/nomination-process
• Application and nomination portal: https://apply.unescoalfozanprize.org/login
• Past laureates: https://www.unesco.org/en/prizes/al-fozan/laureates
• Enquiries: [email protected]
• Postal address: UNESCO Natural Sciences Sector, 7 Place de Fontenoy, 75352 Paris SP 07, France

Read the laureates page before you write. Five people are selected every two years, so the list is short enough to read in full, and it is the clearest available signal of what the jury actually rewards — the balance between research depth and social reach, and how candidates from your region have framed their contributions.

Then work backwards from 30 November. Confirm the age rule this week. Identify and contact a nominator in August or early September. Draft the alignment statement in October, while there is still time to gather adoption letters and translations. Leave the last two weeks of November for your nominator’s signature and the portal upload, not for writing.