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The Virchow Prize

Towards Health for All

NOMINATION PHASE FOR THE VIRCHOW PRIZE 2026

October 11, 2025 – February 28, 2026

Eligibility
Nominations
Selection

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Virchow Foundation 

nominations [at] virchow.foundation

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ELIGIBILITY

The Virchow Prize honours significant contributions towards “health for all” in the entire breadth of global health through groundbreaking research, innovations, achievements and long-standing engagement.

Eligible are individuals, institutions, or organisations from all fields who, in one or more of the following aspects,

  • have made outstanding contributions to improve global health, be it through scientific, societal, technological, political, or economic innovations, and by applying concepts of social, educational, behavioural, environmental, economic, commercial and/or policymaking-related determinants of health;
  • have significantly contributed to the attainment of the United Nations 2030 Agenda Sustainable Development Goals, with special attention made to SDG 3 “Good Health and Well-Being for All” and its intersectionality with others of the 17 SDGs;
  • have developed and/or implemented health-improving innovations or interventions, governance, and policies with the potential for broad impact on equity;
  • have identified and addressed systemic factors leading to increased prevention measures and improved access to medicines, vaccines, therapeutics, or treatments;
  • have contributed to the advancement of research or led to the discovery of disease origins, treatment or prevention which impact global health;
  • have significantly contributed to increasing global cooperation and inclusivity in addressing holistic approaches to global and planetary health challenges.

The work recognized by the Virchow Prize must rest on a fundament of human rights, solidarity, and equity and be rooted in research and academic values.

Neither active Members of the Virchow Foundation Board of Trustees, Executive Board, and Council, nor active Members of the Virchow Prize Committee are eligible for the Virchow Prize.

Equity is the absence of unfair, avoidable, or remediable differences among groups, defined socially, economically, demographically, or geographically – or defined on the basis of gender, ethnicity, disability, or sexual orientation.

Health equity means that everyone gets the opportunity to achieve their full potential for health and well-being, regardless of their background or circumstances. This involves addressing the social determinants of health, which are the conditions in which people are born, grow, live, work, and age, as well as the political and commercial determinants of health which are often at the root of health inequities.

Health for all requires “mutually beneficial and power-balanced partnerships and processes leading to equitable human and environmental health products“, respectively outcomes, on a global scale (proposed as definition for “global health equity” by August E, Tadesse L, O’Neill MS, Eisenberg JNS, Wong R, Kolars JC and Bekele A. What is Global Health Equity? A Proposed Definition. Annals of Global Health. 2022; 88(1): 50, 1–6. DOI: https://doi.org/10.5334/aogh.3754). This implies decolonizing global health, ensuring symmetric roles in decision-making and implementation, and working against racism, prejudices, intolerance, and supremacy.

NOMINATIONS | QUALIFIED NOMINATORS

Nominations have to be submitted utilizing the dedicated online form available as download from this webpage.

A nomination for the Virchow Prize is considered valid if it is submitted by a person who falls within one of the following categories: 

  1. Members of national assemblies, national governments and supranational parliaments as well as current heads of sovereign states which have signed the Charter of the United Nations 
  2. Secretary-Generals, Director-Generals and Executive Directors of United Nations organisations and institutions as well as of other intergovernmental organisations and assemblies 
  3. Members of scientific academies
  4. Presidents, rectors, directors of universities, research institutions, and foreign policy institutes
  5. Laureates of the Virchow Prize
  6. Laureates of the Nobel Prizes, the Lasker Prize, the Gairdner Awards, the Robert Koch Prize, the Emil von Behring Prize, the Paul Ehrlich and Ludwig Darmstaedter Prize, and equivalent international awards 
  7. Former members of the Virchow Prize Committee
  8. Former advisers of the Virchow Prize Committee
  9. Citizens otherwise accepted by the Virchow Prize Committee to submit nominations 
  10. Self-nominations are not considered

A maximum of three candidates – individuals, organizations, and/or institutions – may be nominated in any combination, which thus allows for tandem nominations of individuals and organizations/institutions.

SELECTION OF LAUREATES

Each year, no more than three candidates – individuals, organisations or institutions – will be awarded the Virchow Prize, granted by the Virchow Foundation.

Final selection of the laureates will be proposed following the vote by the independent Virchow Prize Committee. The committee is free to split the prize between different individuals or between different organizations/institutions or between individuals and organizations/institutions. The committee may divide the prize endowment either equally or unequally.

Within the selection process, the Virchow Prize Committee will elaborate from all nominations a short list of candidates. Expert reviewers and advisers may be invited by the Virchow Prize Committee as part of the selection process.