The University of Pretoria’s Doctor Heide Hackmann has had the honour of being selected as a juror for the inaugural Frontiers Planet Prize, a prestigious global sustainability science competition which offers a substantial cash prize of CHF 1 million (about R17 million) for each of its three winners. One hundred of the world’s most highly regarded sustainability scientists will serve on the jury panel for the competition.

Dr Hackmann is a Fellow of the International Science Council and a member of the Council’s Global Sustainability Commission. She has a distinguished international career in science and technology policy, global science strategy and systems development, as well as international science advice and diplomacy. She has served on numerous international science councils and been an advisor to the United Nations. Dr Hackmann is currently the Interim Director of the Future Africa Platform and Strategic Advisor on Transdisciplinarity and Global Knowledge Networks at the University of Pretoria (UP), and she remains active on the advisory boards of numerous scientific organisations and initiative. Commenting on the Planet Prize, Dr Hackmann said, “This is an exciting new global initiative and a much-needed investment in advancing sustainability science for the global public good. I am honoured to have been selected to be a jury member.”

The Frontiers Planet Prize is part of a new initiative being launched by the Frontiers Research Foundation, a not-for-profit organisation based in Switzerland. The Frontiers Foundation states its goal as “raising funds to support programmes that accelerate scientific solutions for healthy lives on a healthy planet”. In support of this goal, it plans to offer a number of programmes with prizes, the first being the Frontiers Planet Prize with its focus on sustainability science. The Foundation hopes that the Planet Prize will ignite a race for advances in sustainability science, as well as boost the discipline’s visibility at a global level. The particular focus of this inaugural Planet Prize is scientific research happening around the nine planetary boundaries: “The Frontiers Planet Prize will recognise, encourage, and reward exceptional scientists whose work has a measurable potential to help humanity stay within planetary boundaries.”

Professor Doctor Johan Rockström, Director of the Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research and chair of the Frontiers Planet Prize, has been key in delineating the nine planetary boundaries. These boundaries are climate change, loss of biodiversity, biogeochemical flows, ocean acidification, land use change, overuse of fresh water, stratospheric ozone layer, atmospheric aerosol loading, and novel entities. As the Foundation explains, the boundaries are tipping points which, if crossed, will result in irreversible and unstoppable changes to our planet. As some of these boundaries have already been breached, urgent action is required.

The Frontiers Planet Prize is looking for innovative scientific research that has the greatest potential to stabilise the Earth’s ecosystem by keeping the planet within one or more planetary boundary. As Prof Rockström explains, “This prestigious, global scientific competition will recognise and financially support scientists whose research exhibits the most important scientific advances in planetary boundaries research providing the greatest potential to protect and restore our planet’s health and help accelerate solutions for sustainability.”

The Frontiers Planet Prize is open to any scientist who leads a research team whose research focuses on one or more planetary boundaries. To be eligible to enter, their research must have been published in an established peer-reviewed scientific journal in 2021 or 2022. According to the Frontiers Foundation brochure on the Planet Prize, social science contributions are also eligible “if they emerge from a clear understanding of all the planetary boundaries and their scientific challenges”.

Scientists cannot apply independently but need to be nominated by a national nominating body (NNB), which is usually a university or leading research institution within the country in which that scientist works. Interested scientists can complete a short application form provided by the Frontiers Foundation, and submissions can be made between 1 November and 31 December 2022.

Dr Hackmann encourages those working in sustainability science at UP to avail themselves of this opportunity to not only showcase their groundbreaking work, but also to stand a chance of winning the generous cash prize of CHF 1 million to fund their work in the future. With the current exchange rate, CHF 1 million equates to over R17 million – a prize well worth pursuing. Further details will be shared by UP closer to the submission date.

In January 2023, the NNBs of the participating countries will choose their top candidate to put forward for jury consideration. The jury will then independently assess the submissions to choose one national champion from each participating country. From these national champions, three international champions will be chosen as the overall winners and will each receive the Frontiers Planet Prize of CHF 1 million to further their groundbreaking research. The winners may use their prize money however they see fit to advance their research. The three international champions will be announced on Earth Day, 22 April 2023, and an awards ceremony will take place on 27 April 2023 at the annual Frontiers Forum in Montreux, Switzerland.

In the future, the Foundation hopes to expand the Frontiers Planet Prize programme to include prizes for each of the nine planetary boundaries, as well as offering prizes in other areas. For now, it believes that this inaugural Planet Prize “has the potential to instigate an increase in funding for planetary boundary research as well as accelerate solutions for sustainability”. For those interested in finding out more about the Frontiers Foundation and the Planet Prize in particular, please see the Frontiers Planet Prize website.