The Nobel Prize is the most prestigious scientific award in the world, and winning one is the ultimate accolade.
Did you know that more than 30 Nobel Prizes have been won by EU-funded researchers, including seven in just the last four years.
The Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences and the Nobel Assembly of the Karolinksa Institutet award the Nobel Prizes to "those who, during the preceding year, have conferred the greatest benefit to humankind."
It takes place every year and there are five categories: physics, chemistry, physiology or medicine, literature and peace, and the Sveriges Riksbank Prize in Economic Sciences in Memory of Alfred Nobel.
Most recently, Anne L'Huillier and Ferenc Krausz, two researchers who the EU has backed substantially for the past 15 years, were awarded the Nobel Prize in Physics in 2023.
There are many different tools in our funding programmes that help potential Nobel Prize winners to emerge.
The European Research Council (ERC) provides grants for researchers to work on cutting-edge science. It provides long-term grants where researchers are free to deviate, explore and take risks. Since its launch in 2007, 14 ERC grantees have won a Nobel Prize.
Additionally, the Marie Skłodowska Curie Actions (MSCA) support excellent researchers at all stages of their career. Whether they are doctoral candidates or highly experienced researchers, they get the opportunity to receive training and engage in innovative transnational, inter-sectoral and interdisciplinary research. The programme is named after the double Nobel Prize winner Marie Skłodowska-Curie to honour and promote the values she stood for. Several researchers directly involved in the MSCA followed her footsteps. Since 2013, 18 researchers involved in MSCA have been awarded a Nobel Prize.
Both Anne L’Hullier and Ferenc Krausz received ERC grants and are directly connected to the MSCA.
Providing funding that results in Nobel Prizes is Europe working at its best.
More information
Read more about Nobel Prizes won by ERC grantees
Read more about Nobel Prizes won by MSCA fellows, scientists and supervisors
More Society related stories