Frontiers Research Foundation Planet Prize 2025
OBJECTIVES
Since its launch on Earth Day 2022, the Planet Prize has engaged 610 institutions and 20 academies of science, across 62 countries, and over 10,000 scientists through their participation as coauthors of nominated articles. Earth system scientists have identified nine planetary boundaries, beyond which irreversible changes to the planet may occur. The Earth’s system is rapidly approaching its planetary boundaries. There is a broad consensus amongst scientists that human activity is the primary driver of these breaches, and the time needed to protect and restore planetary health is slipping away.
A core principle of The Frontiers Planet Prize is its commitment to addressing the breach of these boundaries through breakthrough scientific research. The Frontiers Planet Prize recognizes transformational research that shows the greatest potential to address the world’s most urgent environmental challenges.
The nominee’s research contribution must be based on one research article published in an established, peer-reviewed scientific journal with robust peer review and transparent publication procedures. The research can be across any discipline provided it is focused on planetary boundaries and presents original research findings or insightful reviews and syntheses that help reduce the destabilization of the Earth system.
FUNDING INFORMATION
$1 million prize to accelerate and scale up the impact of the 3 international awardees’ breakthrough research.
Awardees are first nominated by a National Nominating Body (NNB), such as BU. Then the National Academies of Sciences will choose the 3 US national nominees. The Jury of 100 selects a national nominee in one round of votes and the final 3 international awardees in a second vote.
ELIBIGILITY
Nominations must be made for a specific peer-reviewed article that must have been published within 2 years prior to the launch of the competition (November 1, 2023 and October 31, 2025).
For contributions to be considered for the Planet Prize, they must adhere to the following criteria:
- Outline actionable solutions or pathways that can be implemented in policies, adapted commercially, or otherwise contribute to keep global development within planetary boundaries
- Advance the scientific understanding and quantification of planetary boundaries; exploring how planetary boundaries are affected or impact life support systems or the Earth system or investigates the implications of adopting planetary boundaries thinking across disciplines, sectors, and activities/applications
- Connect to several planetary boundaries at the Earth system scale, specifically prioritizing work exploring interactions/relations between multiple planetary boundaries
INTERNAL SELECTION PROCESS
BU can nominate 3 scientists as a National Nominating Body (NNB). Interested applicants should submit the following materials via InfoReady Review by: 10/6/2025
- Citation information for the published article, including date of acceptance
- PDF of published article
- Actionable Solutions Statement describing how the research results can be implemented in policies, be commercially adapted or otherwise contribute to keep the planet within its planetary boundaries (1200 characters maximum including spaces)
- Personal Statement answering the question: Why my paper should win the Prize (1200 characters maximum including spaces)
As necessary, a faculty committee will review and select BU’s nominees as an NNB. The Office of Research and Foundation Relations will support nominees to submit their materials by 10/31/2025.
DEADLINES
Internal Materials Due: Monday, October 6, 2025
Anticipated Notification Date: Friday, October 24, 2025
Nominations Due: Friday, October 31, 2025