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.

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Creating the vision for ambitious dream products of global importance for humankind.
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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

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Nominations

Propose candidates for winning the 2026 Future Insight™ prize to the Jury by sending their name, affiliation and 3 sentences on why you recommend them to futureinsightprize@emdgroup.com.

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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)
  • Health - Fighting pandemics with AI (2024)
  • Health - Body organ regenerator (2025)
  • Health - Smart health sensor (2026)

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 at the Curious - Future Insight Conference or a dedicated hand-over event.
Smart Health Sensor Smart Health Sensor
2026 Prize Topic

Smart Health Sensor

The dream product is a sensor that non-invasively and permanently scans human health and automatically detects any emerging health problem before it manifests itself, allowing for immediate intervention.

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method to re-grow all damaged organs for regenerative medicine method to re-grow all damaged organs for regenerative medicine
2025 Prize topic

Body Organ Regenerator

The dream product is a method that allows to re-grow all damaged organs for regenerative medicine. 

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2024 Prize topic

Fighting pandemics with AI

The dream product is an AI-driven monitoring and modeling tool that can help detect outbreaks early, quickly process data from multiple sources, and predict future scenarios.  

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2023 Prize topic

Pandemic Preparedness

The dream product is a pandemic early alert system that constantly monitors circulating bacteria and viruses in all areas of the world with an early warning system for newly emerging pandemics. 

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2022 Prize Topic

Co2 conversion

The dream product generates a high energy-density fuel from renewable energy, water, and atmospheric carbon dioxide with an overall negative carbon dioxide balance.
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The dream product converts any nonedible biomass into readily edible fully The dream product converts any nonedible biomass into readily edible fully
2021 Prize topic

Food Generation

The dream product converts any nonedible biomass into readily edible fully nutritional food within one day without any biohazard.
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2020 Prize topic

Multi-Drug Resistance

The dream product is a series of novel narrow-spectrum antibacterial agents that are able to cure any bacterial infection without induction of drug resistance, empowered by a one hour diagnostic test.
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2019 Prize topic

Pandemic Protection

The dream product starts with a clinical sample of a person infected with an unknown pathogen and produces an agent for cure or to prevent infection of others within a clinically relevant timeframe.
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Future Insight prize winner 2025

The Future Insight™ prize 2025 was awarded to Magdalena Götz, Helmholtz Centre Munich, for her work in reprogramming glial cells for neuronal regeneration. Her team demonstrated that glial cells, traditionally seen as support cells, can act as neural stem cells and be reprogrammed into neurons. This discovery paves the way for regenerative therapies targeting neurodegenerative diseases such as Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s.

Recent prize winners

Year Name Research Affiliation Award Award amount Story
2025Magdalena GötzHelmholtz Centre Munich Body Organ Regenerator€ 250,000 
2024Lauren Gardner Johns Hopkins UniversityFighting pandemics with AI€ 500,000  
2023Khalid SalaitaEmory University, GeorgiaPandemic early alert€ 500,000Pandemic early alert
2022Tobias J. ErbMax Planck Institute for Terrestrial MicrobiologyCO2 to fuel conversion€ 1 MioCO2 conversion
2021Ting LuUniversity of IllinoisEqually shared: Food generator€ 500,000Food generation  
2021Steve TechtmannMichigan Technological UniversityEqually shared: Food generator€ 500,000Food generation  
2020Stephan SieberTechnical University MunichMulti-drug resistance breaker€ 1 MioMulti-drug resistance
2019James Earl Crowe, Jr.Vanderbilt University Medical CenterEqually shared: Pandemic protector€ 500,000Pandemic protection  
2019Pardis SabetiThe Broad Institute, Inc.Equally shared: Pandemic protector€ 500,000Pandemic protection  
Curious2024 - Future Insight conference medial library

2025 Award Handover

The 2025 Future InsightTM prize is handed over on July 8th in Darmstadt, Germany.  Browse past award lectures in the media library of the Curious - Future InsightTM conference.

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

Ulrich Betz

Senior 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 JonathWeizmann Institute of ScienceKhalid SalaitaEmory University 
Alessandro DonatoKlang-ArmoniaLamia Messari-BeckerUniversität Siegen 
Angela BelcherMassachusetts Institute of TechnologyLauren GardnerJohns Hopkins University 
Aysa RollsTechnion - Israel Institute of TechnologyLinda HillHarvard Business School 
Belén GarijoMerck KGaA, Darmstadt, GermanyMáire ConnollyNational University of Ireland Galway 
Benjamin ListMax-Planck-Institute for Coal ResearchMartin JonikasPrinceton University 
Brett KaganCortical labsMary VoytekNASA 
Brian K KobilkaStanford UniversityMagdalena GötzHelmholtz Centre Munich 
Burkhard BecherUniversity of ZurichMatt RosseinskyUniversity of Liverpool 
Camille DelebecqueAfineurMichael JacobsRoyal Free London NHS 
Carola VinuesaFrancis Crick InstituteMichael ObersteinerUniversity of Oxford 
Caroline DiveCancer Research UKMihaela van der ShaarUniversity of Cambridge 
Catherine Havasi MIT Media LabMoritz HelmstädterMPI for Brain Research 
Chihaya AdachiKyushu UniversityMurray S. CampbellIBM 
Christina SmolkeStanford UniversityNadia TornieporthClinical Consultant, Vaccine Development 
Christopher MilneTuftsNancy CoxVanderbilt University 
Clifford P. KubiakUC San DiegoNaom SlonimIBM 
Daniel BauschLondon School of Hygiene and Tropical MedicineNeil HausmannBill & Melinda Gates Foundation 
Daniel ZajfmanWeizmann Institute of ScienceNicholas DonofrioIBM 
David BloomHarvard T.H. Chan School of Public HealthOrla SmithScience / AAAS 
David SolitMemorial Sloan Kettering Cancer CenterOtmar WiestlerHelmholtz Association 
Dean RadinCalifornia Institute of Integral StudiesPardis SabetiBroad Institute 
Deborah O‘NeilNovabioticsPeidong YangUC Berkeley 
Don ClevelandUC San DiegoPeter HotezBaylor College of Medicine 
Dorothee DormannJohannes Gutenberg-Universität MainzPeter PiotThe London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine 
Eduard A. LemkeJohannes Gutenberg-Universität MainzRafi Ahmed Emory University 
Esther Ngumbi University of Illinois at Urbana–ChampaignRobert HuberMax-Planck-Institute for Biochemistry 
Ernst-Ludwig WinnackerLudwig Maximilians University of MunichRon FouchierErasmus University 
George ChurchHarvard UniversityRoss MacleanPrecision Medicine Group 
George P. SmithCatholic University of AmericaRudi BallingUniversity of Bonn 
Gerald HaugLeopoldina, German National Academy of SciencesScott SpanglerDataScava 
Gordon J. FreedmanDana-Farber Cancer InsistuteSegenet KelemuMastercard Foundation 
Hans-Joachim ZeilerCreative TherapeuticShahaf PelegFBN, Germany 
Harald SeifertUniversity of CologneShinichi AkaikeNISTEP, Japan 
Hartmut MichelMax-Planck Institute for BiochemistryShyam SankarPalantir Technologies 
Helmut SchwarzTU BerlinStephan SieberTechnical University Munich 
Isha DatarNew HarvestStephen TechtmannMichigan Technological University 
Jacquelyn FrancisThe Global Warming Mitigation ProjectSteve JacksonUniversity of Cambridge 
Jake YestonAAAS / ScienceStewart ColeÉcole Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne 
James E. CroweVanderbilt Medical CenterSubhanu SaxenaNew Rhein Foundation 
Jarryd PlaUniversity of New South WalesTanja WeilMax Planck Institute for Polymer Research 
Jean-Marie Lehn College de FranceTheresa MercerCranfield University 
Jef BoekeNYU Langone HealthThomas SüdhofStanford University 
Jeremy NicholsonMurdoch UniversityTim Appenzeller Science / AAAS 
Joachim FrankColumbia UniversityTing LuUniversity of Illinois 
Joao MonteiroNature MedicineTobias ErbMPI for Terrestrial Microbiology 
Joe QuirkThe Seasteading InstituteTom KnightGinkgo Bioworks 
Johann-Dietrich WörnerNational Academy of Science and Engineering, acatechUlrich BetzMerck KGaA, Darmstadt, Germany 
John GyapongAfrican Research Universities AllianceUlrich HartlMPI of Biochemistry 
Kara BrenUniversity of RochesterUlrich Wiesner Cornell University 
Katja KrauseMax-Planck-Institute for the History of ScienceValorie AquinoMarch for Science 
  Yang Shao-Horn
Massachusetts Institute of Technology 

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

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