The fourth edition of the BIAL Foundation international award, the BIAL Award in Biomedicine, is underway, with nominations open until 30 June. This edition, with an increase in value to 350,000 euros, seeks to recognise work published in the broad biomedical field within the last ten years, the results of which are considered of exceptional quality and scientific relevance.
An independent and international Jury will choose the winning work among the high-quality empirical research articles in biomedicine published from 2016 onwards in peer-reviewed journals. The articles are nominated by the voting members of the Jury, the members of the Scientific Board of the BIAL Foundation, previous BIAL Award winners, or scientific societies. The Jury may also invite other scientific institutions to submit nominations. Self-nominations are not allowed.
Chaired once again by Ralph Adolphs, Professor of Psychology, Neuroscience and Biology at Caltech (California Institute of Technology), 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 recalls that “nominations are welcomed for articles authored by scientists at any stage of their career, and from any country around the world”, and stresses that “the nominating group should not include individuals who contributed to the nominated work”.
The chairman of the BIAL Foundation, Luís Portela, emphasises that “the BIAL Award in Biomedicine aims to distinguish the work published in the last ten years that has most contributed to improving the health conditions of humanity” and gives the example of “Prof. Drew Weissman and Prof. 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 2023 edition, this award honoured an article published in the journal Nature in 2019 that represents important 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, even with state-of-the-art treatment. The winning team was led by Varun Venkataramani, Frank Winkler and Thomas Kuner, and included 26 other co-authors, researchers from Heidelberg University, Heidelberg University Hospital, German Cancer Research Centre, University Hospital Mannheim, Otto-von-Guericke University (Germany), Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine (USA), University of Glasgow (UK), University of Bergen and Haukeland University Hospital (Norway) at the time the article was published.
Created to distinguish the most remarkable scientific discoveries in the biomedical field, the BIAL Award in Biomedicine takes place biannually, in odd years, alternating with the Prémio BIAL de Medicina Clínica. It has the support of the President of the Portuguese Republic, the Council of Rectors of Portuguese Universities and the European Medical Association.
The regulation, nomination platform and more information about this edition are available here.
