2024 Virchow Prize for Global Health

The Virchow Prize for Global Health materializes the lifetime achievement of prominent individuals and organisations around the world by establishing a significant international prize of the highest prestige in the broad field of global health.

Moreover, the Virchow Prize for Global Health aims to incentivise and spur future generations of great minds in their commitment to global health. Anyone with a desire to improve the health of the world’s population, whether through academic, political, social or economic/industrial innovation, should be able to aspire to such a prestigious award.

The Virchow Prize for Global Health directly addresses the relationship between medical, political, economic and social determinants of health, and aims to contribute sustainable and universal improvement of health outcomes.

Eligibility Criteria

• 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 for Global Health 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 for Global Health Board of Trustees, Executive Board, and Council, nor active Members of the Virchow Prize Committee are eligible for the Virchow Prize for Global Health.

Qualified Nominators

• A nomination for the Virchow Prize for Global Health is considered valid if it is submitted by a person who falls within one of the following categories:
  • 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
  • Secretary-Generals, Director-Generals and Executive Directors of United Nations organisations and institutions as well as of other intergovernmental organisations and assemblies
  • Members of scientific academies
  • Presidents, rectors, directors of universities, research institutions, and foreign policy institutes
  • Laureates of the Virchow Prize for Global Health
  • 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
  • Former members of the Virchow Prize Committee
  • Former advisers of the Virchow Prize Committee
  • Citizens otherwise accepted by the Virchow Prize Committee to submit nominations
  • Self-nominations are not considered

Selection of Laureates

• The Virchow Prize for Global Health laureates will be announced annually on the second Monday in September.
• Each year, no more than three candidates – individuals, organisations or institutions – will be awarded the Virchow Prize for Global Health, granted by the Virchow Foundation for Global Health.
• Final selection of the laureates will be proposed following a majority vote by the independent Virchow Prize Committee. 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.
• Virchow Prize Committee members are being nominated and elected by the Virchow Foundation for Global Health Council. The committee is chaired by the President of the Foundation.

For more information, visit Virchow Foundation for Global Health.