The Award Coordinating University
The Award Coordinating University (ACU) is entrusted with overseeing the evaluation and selection process for the Nobel Sustainability Trust (NST) Sustainability Awards. These prestigious awards are presented annually in two categories: “Leadership in Implementation”, which recognizes outstanding practical achievements in advancing sustainability, and “Outstanding Research and Development”, which honors pioneering scientific or technological contributions with long-term impact.
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The ACU plays a central role in ensuring the fairness, transparency, and excellence of the award process. In close consultation with NST, the ACU is responsible for forming the Award Selection Committees, composed of internationally recognized experts, academics, and practitioners in the field of sustainability. These committees are tasked with carefully reviewing nominations, assessing their impact, and selecting the final award recipients.
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For the period 2023 to 2025, the Technical University of Munich (TUM) serves as the Award Coordinating University. Within TUM, the Institute for Advanced Study (TUM-IAS) takes the lead in coordinating the overall process. This includes organizing the call for nominations, assembling evaluation panels, and facilitating deliberations among international experts and TUM professors. The collaboration between TUM-IAS and the Nobel Sustainability Trust ensures that the awards are grounded in both cutting-edge scientific insight and real-world implementation experience.
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From year 2026 to 2028, in accordance with the contract between the Nobel Sustainability Trust (NST) and the University of Cambridge (2026), represented by its Frontier Technologies Laboratory (FTL) and the ClimaTRACES Lab, the contracted partners are to determine the topics of the “Sustainability Award supported by the Nobel Sustainability Trust Foundation” each year. The awards, which recognise breakthroughs in science and implementation, are intended to align with the UN Sustainable Development Goals but are decided based on the individual merit of each submission. The rules and principles applied in the Award competition comply with the ethical principles and values characterized by the ‘normal expectations of good practice in research’ as upheld by the University of Cambridge.
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Through the ACU’s work, the Sustainability Awards uphold the highest academic and professional standards, while also highlighting the importance of innovation, leadership, and collaboration in addressing global sustainability challenges.