The BBVA Foundation Frontiers of Knowledge Awards are intended to recognize and reward excellence in research and cultural creation, especially contributions that have achieved broad impact due to their originality and significance. The name of the awards refers equally to research work that successfully enlarges the scope of knowledge – moving forward the frontiers of the known world – and the meeting and overlap of disciplinary domains. The Frontiers Awards distinguish fundamental disciplinary or supradisciplinary advances in eight categories:
- Basic Sciences (Physics, Chemistry, Mathematics)
- Biology and Biomedicine
- Information and Communication Technologies
- Climate Change and Environmental Sciences
- Economics, Finance and Management
- Humanities
- Social Sciences
- Music and Opera
Principles of the Frontiers of Knowledge Awards
The Frontiers Awards are guided by the following principles:
- To recognize the importance of basic knowledge. However valuable the other forms of applied research privileged by science policy in these past decades, basic knowledge remains the principal driver of scientific change and, indirectly, of our material progress and wellbeing, and cultural development.
- To address the interdisciplinary nature of knowledge in the closing decades of the last century and our present days. Hence the decision to group awards so as to reflect the interaction and overlap of disciplines (Physics, Chemistry, Mathematics; Biology and Medicine; Economics, Finance and Management), while retaining the option to distinguish outstanding advances in one discipline alone.
- To acknowledge the fact that many seminal contributions to our current stock of knowledge are the result of collaborative working between large research teams. This is why, unlike other prizes reserved for one person alone or perhaps three at most, they may be shared by any number of any size teams, provided the achievement being recognized is the result of collaborative or parallel working.
- To highlight the importance of the humanities and social sciences, which take their place alongside the basic and natural sciences and ICT, and to establish a category distinguishing creative excellence in music, a supremely innovative art form that does much to shape the culture and identity of our or any time.
Expert committees
The BBVA Foundation Frontiers of Knowledge Awards are decided by committees made up of internationally reputed experts in their respective fields, who deliberate in complete independence relying solely on the standards and metrics of excellence proper to the subject area. Their members are appointed by the BBVA Foundation together with the Spanish National Research Council (CSIC), the country’s premier public research organization, which proposes the committee chair and is consulted by the Foundation on the designation of remaining members. The partnership between the CSIC and the BBVA Foundation endorses the objectivity, independence and standards of excellence informing each stage of the candidate selection process. It also rests on a shared conviction of the fundamental role played by advanced scientific research and artistic creation in the opening decades of the 21st century as a force for the ongoing advancement of society.
