Désiré Collen was awarded the Belgian Francqui Prize in Biological and Medical Sciences in 1984. He received the Louis-Jeantet Prize for Medicine (Fondation L. Jeantet, Geneva, Switzerland) in 1986, the Bristol-Myers Squibb Award for Cardiovascular Research (New York, NY, USA) jointly with Mark Verstraete in 1994, the Interbrew-Baillet Latour Health Prize (Belgium) jointly with Peter Carmeliet in 2005, the Harvard Leadership Prize by the Harvard Club of Belgium in 2007, the Insead Innovator Prize in 2009, the Robert P. Grant Medal from the International Society for Thrombosis and Haemostasis in 2011, the Lifetime Achievement Award of Belcham (New York, NY, USA) in 2013 and the Lifetime Achievement Award of Scrip (London, UK) in 2013.