Each winner will receive up to 1,250,000 over a five-year period in an award that is comparable in scope to the Nobel Prize.
The prize winners, invited guests and representatives of the media were welcomed to the Awards ceremony by Blint Magyar, Hungarian Minister of Education, and Etele Barth, Hungarian Minister of European Union Affairs. The opening address was given by Attila Mesk, Secretary General of the Hungarian Academy of Sciences. The keynote address was given by Professor Peter Nijkamp, Chairman of EuroHORCs, the association of the heads of public national research and research funding organisations in Europe, and joint developer with ESF of the EURYI Awards.
The Awards ceremony was introduced and managed by Professor Norbert Kro, Vice President of the Hungarian Academy of Sciences. The response was given by prize winner Zoltn Nusser on behalf of all the 2005 winners, and the concluding address by Professor Bertil Andersson, Chief Executive of ESF.
Commenting on the importance of prizes like the EURYI Awards to the younger generation of talented science researchers, Nobel Prize winner Professor Arber said, "I was impressed to see that the awards jury had recognized the quality of the winners. It gives a big impulse to them. Having received a five-year award to fund most of the costs of their research projects is very important because they can now achieve a great deal in that time."
He added, "I was also impressed with the interdisciplinarity of the winners which includes lawyers, biologists and astronomers, so it is a very wide field."
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Contact: Claus Nowotny
cnowotny@esf.org
European Science Foundation
10-Nov-2005