The Nobel Foundation that grants the Nobel Prize to most
distinguished scientists every year has
announced that it will cut the prize money awards by 20% from
SEK 10.0 million (€1.13 million) to SEK 8.0 million (€0.90 million)
per prize.
Lars Heikensten, Executive Director of the Nobel Foundation,
commented: "The Nobel Foundation is responsible for ensuring that
the prize sum can be maintained at a high level in the long term.
We have made the assessment that it is important to implement
necessary measures in good time."
Full press statement
"At its meeting on June 11, 2012, the Board of Directors of the
Nobel Foundation set the amount of the 2012 Nobel Prizes at SEK 8.0
million per prize, at today's exchange rate equivalent to USD 1.1
million. This implies a lowering of the prize sum by 20 per cent.
The Nobel Foundation regards this as a necessary measure in order
to avoid an undermining of its capital in a long-term
perspective.
One of the most important tasks of the Nobel Foundation is to
safeguard the economic base of the Nobel Prize. The capital left
behind by Alfred Nobel must therefore be managed in such a way that
it will be possible to award the Nobel Prize in perpetuity, while
guaranteeing the independence of the prize-awarding
institutions.
The decision to lower the prize sum, from SEK 10.0 to 8.0
million, is related to the assessment that the Board of Directors
makes today of the potential for achieving a good
inflation-adjusted return on the Nobel Foundation's capital during
the next several years. Another part of the picture is that during
the past decade, the average return on the Foundation's capital has
fallen short of the overall sum of all Nobel Prizes and operating
expenses. The costs of the Nobel Foundation's central
administration and the Nobel festivities are therefore being
reviewed.
"The Nobel Foundation is responsible for ensuring that the prize
sum can be maintained at a high level in the long term. We have
made the assessment that it is important to implement necessary
measures in good time," says Lars Heikensten, Executive Director of
the Nobel Foundation.
The various organisations in the Nobel sphere also jointly
manage large assets connected to the Nobel Prize as a trademark.
This includes not only the Nobel Foundation and the prize-awarding
institutions, but also the organisations that disseminate
information about the Nobel Prize and the achievements of the
Laureates, such as Nobel Media and the Nobel Museum in Stockholm
and the Nobel Peace Center in Oslo. Since the Nobel Foundation's
capital must be used primarily to pay for the work of the Nobel
committees and the prize sum itself, these information activities
are essentially externally financed, for example via grants from
central or local government authorities, corporate sponsors,
private donors, foundations or philanthropic entities.
The same is true of the investment in a Nobel Prize Center on
the Blasieholmen peninsula in central Stockholm which was announced
earlier. The equity of the Nobel Foundation will not be used either
for the building or for the operation of a future Center.
"The Nobel Prize Center will become an important base in our
long-term efforts to preserve the stature of the Nobel Prize and
disseminate the message of the Nobel Prize to a global audience,"
says Lars Heikensten, Executive Director of the Nobel
Foundation."