Future Insight Prize

Stimulating scientific and technological progress in the areas of health, nutrition, and energy.

REALIZING THE DREAMS FOR A BETTER TOMORROW

At the occasion of our 350th anniversary, Merck KGaA, Darmstadt, Germany launched the Future Insight™ prize to stimulate innovative solutions to solve some of humanities greatest problems and to realize the dreams for a better tomorrow in the areas of health, nutrition and energy. The Future Insight™ prize will put the vision for ambitious dream products of global importance for humankind into the world and will trigger curiosity and creativity worldwide on how to make this vision a reality. We intend to give out up to EUR 1,000,000 annually for 35 years to incentivize people whose work has enabled significant progress towards making this vision a reality via discovering new ground-breaking science or via development of enabling technologies.

Garijo Belen Cut Out 600 600 Garijo Belen Cut Out 600 600

With the Future Insight™ prize, we aim to empower researchers tackling some of humanity’s most pressing global challenges in health, nutrition and energy.

Belén Garijo

Chair of the Executive Board and CEO of Merck KGaA, Darmstadt, Germany

We can make it happen

The Future Insight™ prize puts the vision for ambitious dream products of global importance for humankind into the world and triggers curiosity and creativity on how to make these visions a reality. 

The prize will be awarded annually from 2019 onwards to honor outstanding achievements in science & technology towards a ground‐breaking innovation important for the future of humanity in the areas:

  • Health - Pandemic protector (2019)
  • Health - Multi drug resistance breaker (2020)
  • Nutrition - Food generator (2021)
  • Energy - CO2 to fuel convertor (2022)
  • Health - Pandemic early alert system (2023)

What do you think should be the focus of the Future Insight™ prize topic in the years to come? Send in your proposals at futureinsightprize@emdgroup.com.

Selection Process

  • A jury comprising experts from all over the world will identify suitable candidates for the Future Insight™ prize
  • Additionally, proposals for Future Insight™ prize candidates can be sent to the jury (no self-nominations)
  • Amongst all of these candidates, the jury will select the top individuals whom are invited to submit a formal application for the prize
  • The jury will evaluate these applications and select the winner of the Future Insight™ prize
  • The winner will be publicly announced and present their research at the Future Insight™ conference

"The Future Insight prize supports basic science that has a bold vision and great impact in the future and I can’t thank Merck KGaA, Darmstadt, Germany enough for that support." Khalid Salaita, Emory University in Atlanta, Georgia

Recent prize winners

Year Name University Award Story
2023 Khalid Salaita Emory University, Georgia Pandemic early alert Pandemic early alert
2022 Tobias J. Erb Max Planck Institute for Terrestrial Microbiology CO2 to fuel conversion CO2 conversion
2021 Ting Lu University of Illinois Equally shared: Food generator Food generation  
2021 Steve Techtmann Michigan Technological University Equally shared: Food generator Food generation  
2020 Stephan Sieber Technical University Munich Multi-drug resistance breaker Multi-drug resistance
2019 James Earl Crowe, Jr. Vanderbilt University Medical Center Equally shared: Pandemic protector Pandemic protection  
2019 Pardis Sabeti The Broad Institute, Inc. Equally shared: Pandemic protector Pandemic protection  
Betz Freigestellt4 Betz Freigestellt4

The Future Insight prize builds a network of innovators to enable the dreams for a better tomorrow.

Ulrich Betz

Vice President Innovation, Merck KGaA, Darmstadt, Germany

Inventor and manager of the Future Insight prize

Testimonials

“The Future Insight prize is great because it sets a grand challenge and seeks a solution to societies greatest future needs.” Prof. Dr. Daniel Nocera - Harvard University

"The Future Insight prize is great because it will foster scientific innovation in areas critical to humanity's future.“ Professor Martin Jonikas - Princeton University

“The Future Insight prize in pandemic protection is great because it is a clear expression of commitment to society and global health.” Dr. Sir Michael Jacobs – Royal Free London NHS Foundation Trust

"The Future Insight prize is great because it shows a 350-year old company is thinking about the next 350 years.” Isha Datar – CEO New Harvest

Future Insight prize jury


Jury Member
Affiliation  Jury Member Affiliation   
Ada Jonath Weizmann Institute of Science Lamia Messari-Becker Universität Siegen  
Alessandro Donato European Space Agency Linda Hill Harvard Business School  
Angela Belcher Massachusetts Institute of Technology Lolke Sijtsma University of Wageningen  
Aysa Rolls Technion - Israel Institute of Technology Máire Connolly National University of Ireland Galway  
Anthony Atala Wake Forest School of Medicine Manfred Weck RWTH Aachen  
Belén Garijo Merck KGaA, Darmstadt, Germany Martin Jonikas Princeton University  
Benjamin List Max-Planck-Institute for Coal Research Mary Voytek NASA  
Brett Kagan Cortical labs Matt Rosseinsky University of Liverpool  
Brian K Kobilka Stanford University Michael Jacobs Royal Free London NH  
Burkhard Becher University of Zurich Michael Obersteiner Oxford University  
Camille Delebecque Afineur Moritz Helmstädter MPI for Brain Research  
Caroline Dive Cancer Research UK Murray S. Campbell IBM  
Catherine Havasi  MIT Media Lab Nadia Tornieporth Coalition for Epidemic Preparedness Innovations  
Chihaya Adachi Kyushu University Nancy Cox Vanderbilt University  
Christina Smolke Stanford University Naom Slonim IBM  
Christopher Milne Tufts Neil Hausmann Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation  
Clifford P. Kubiak UC San Diego Nicholas Donofrio IBM  
Daniel Bausch London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine Omar Yaghi UC Berkeley  
Daniel Zajfman Weizmann Institute of Science Orla Smith Science / AAAS  
David Bloom Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health Otmar Wiestler Helmholtz Association  
David Solit Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center Pardis Sabeti Broad Institute  
Dean Radin California Institute of Integral Studies Peidong Yang UC Berkeley  
Deborah O‘Neil Novabiotics Peter Hotez Baylor College of Medicine  
Don Cleveland UC San Diego Peter Piot The London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine  
Esther Ngumbi  University of Illinois at Urbana–Champaig Rafi Ahmed  Emory University  
Ernst-Ludwig Winnacker Ludwig Maximilians University of Munich Robert Huber Max-Planck-Institute for Biochemistry  
George Church Harvard Universit Ron Fouchier Erasmus University  
George P. Smith Catholic University of America Ross Maclean Precision Value & Health  
Gerald Haug Leopoldina, German National Academy of Sciences Rudi Balling University of Luxembourg  
Gordon J. Freedman Dana-Farber Cancer Insistute Scott Spangler IBM  
Hans-Dieter Klenk Institute of Virology, Marburg Segenet Kelemu ICIPE, Kenya  
Hans-Joachim Zeiler Creative Therapeutics Shinichi Akaike NISTEP, Japan  
Harald Seifert University of Cologne Shyam Sankar Palantir Technologies  
Helmut Schwarz TU Berlin Stephan Sieber Technical University Munich  
Isha Datar New Harvest Stephen Techtmann Michigan Technological University  
Jake Yeston AAAS / Science Steve Jackson University of Cambridge  
Joe Quirk The Seasteading Institute Stewart Cole École Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne  
Johann-Dietrich Wörner National Academy of Science and Engineering, acatech Subhanu Saxena New Rhein Foundation  
James E. Crowe Vanderbilt Medical Center Thomas Südhof Stanford University  
Jaquelyn Francis The Global Warming Mitigation Project Tim Appenzeller  Science / AAAS  
Jarryd Pla University of New South Wales Ting Lu University of Illinois  
Jef Boeke NYU Langone Health Tobias Erb MPI for Terrestrial Microbiology  
Jean-Marie Lehn  College de France Tom Knight Ginkgo Bioworks  
Jeremy Nicholson Murdoch University Ulrich Betz Merck KGaA, Darmstadt, Germany  
Joachim Frank Columbia University Ulrich Hartl MPI of Biochemistry  
Joao Monteiro Nature Medicine Ulrich Wiesner Cornell University  
John Gyapong University of Health & Allied Sciences Valorie Aquino March for Science  
Jörg Tremmel Foundation for the rights of future generations Yang Shao-Horn
Massachusetts Institute of Technology  
Kara Bren University of Rochester      

All winners of the Future Insight prize after being awarded are invited to join the jury for subsequent years.

FAQs