The António Champalimaud Vision Award

23rd April 2007. This year marks the launch of the António Champalimaud Vision Award which aims to recognise and reward excellence in the field of vision.

Recognising Excellence in the Field of Vision

Our founder, António Champalimaud, died almost blind and we believe the award will be a valuable way to honour his memory whilst supporting a field of truly critical importance today. The Foundation structured the award to be innovative and significant in order to make a difference in the world, where problems with vision are still a huge unnecessary burden, and to foster scientific endeavour at its best.  The award will stimulate not only the top scientists working to develop the basic science and understanding necessary for therapeutic advances but also people involved in the efforts to bring this science and healthcare access and opportunities to parts of the world where most people are largely lacking them.  The award will have the support of Vision 2020 – The right to sight, a global initiative for the prevention of blindness launched with the UN’s World Health Organization. 

Exceptionally Diverse Jury Composition

The jury of the award consists of a distinguished panel of both out-standing scientists involved in vision research, and of exceptional public figures involved in meeting the needs of the developing world.  A jury with such diverse combination of backgrounds is in itself an unusual endeavour and supports the unusually large scope and reach of the award. 

Open Access and Active Search for Excellence

The award will be given through a selection process from among: Applications received directly from potential awardees, groups identified by the jury and invited to apply and nominations from the scientific community. Accepting both nominations and applications contrasts with most prizes and awards, however, the Foundation feels this will allow for a greater breadth of applicants in our search for the best, which are also the best examples,preventing worthy groups from being “overlooked”. It is vital to raise awareness of Vision as an important health and scientific problem in the world today. Ideally no eligible group doing truly outstanding work in a developing country should not be considered for the award due to either lack of information or misinformation of any sort. 

Groups rather than Individuals as Target

The recipients of the award will be productive research groups rather than single individuals. This may involve groups from more than one institution or discipline rather than single individuals. We wish to emphasise the Scientific, Healthcare or Humanitarian enterprise as a target, these today are not achieved by a single person and frequently take their force from more than a single discipline, institution or organization which should all be acknowledged. 

Large Financial Prize

The sum of €1.0 million is as large as the Nobel Prize, making the Champalimaud Award one of the largest of its kind in the world in the world and undoubtedly the largest in the field of vision. The award may be used in any way that furthers the outstanding contribution of the recipients. The large sum allows, for instance, significant creative endeavours that otherwise would not easily find funding in more conventional public grant-like regimes. 

This is a preliminary information sheet for more information please contacts the Champalimaud Foundation or email: award@fchampalimaud.org

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