One of the scientific world's most respected environmental prizes

Nomination guidelines

Nominations for the award in 2020 must be submitted before January 10, 2020.

The span of disciplines and activities for which nominations can be made is wide and includes all disciplines which have relevance to the environment. The research of nominees should be based on scientific grounds but must clearly show impacts outside of the specific discipline.

Nominations must include the following:

  1. A short letter of motivation
  2. A detailed description of the research the nominee has conducted and how it adds to our knowledge around environmental science. Main achievements and their importance should be emphasized.
    Emphasis must also be placed on the impacts of the research outside of the particular discipline e.g. impacts on policy development, impacts on sustainability and/or contribution to changed behaviour. 
  3. CV of the nominee + list of published paper/s and links if available.
  4. Letter/s of reference. Maximum 3 letters written by someone other than the nominator.
  5. Nominations should be submitted in English using the official form available at When not feasible, please contact the secretariat
  6. When submitting nominations for a group of named individuals please send one nomination for each person (maximum 3 persons) and specify in the description of achievements that the nomination is for a shared prize.
  7. A nomination remains valid for three years.
  8. Please note that self-nominations are not accepted.

Evaluation process

A Scientific Committee reviews the nominations and presents a report to the international Prize Jury. The Jury recommends one or several winners to the Board of the Volvo Environment Prize Foundation, which then makes the formal decision. The decision is made public in October and the prize is awarded in November each year at a ceremony held in Stockholm, Sweden.