Press release from the Nobel Foundation

New practice for invitations to the Nobel Prize award ceremony and banquet

31 August 2023 View in Swedish

The Nobel Foundation has decided to henceforth invite representatives of all parties that have parliamentary representation in Sweden through democratic elections to the Nobel festivities on 10 December.

“It is clear that the world is increasingly divided into spheres, where dialogue between those with differing views is being reduced,” says Vidar Helgesen, Executive Director of the Nobel Foundation. “To counter this tendency, we are now broadening our invitations to celebrate and understand the Nobel Prize and the importance of free science, free culture and free, peaceful societies.”

The Nobel Foundation sees that today we are living in an increasingly polarised world, characterised by denial of science, resistance to knowledge and threats to freedom of expression, democracy and human rights. These are tendencies that stand in sharp contrast to the values that underpin the Nobel Prize. Ever since Alfred Nobel decided in his will to establish a fund to reward those who have “conferred the greatest benefit to humankind”, the Nobel Prizes in sciences, literature and peace have rewarded outstanding achievements around the world. These represent the opposite of polarisation, populism and nationalism. The achievements recognised by the Nobel Prize require openness, exchange and dialogue between people and nations. The Nobel Foundation would like to reach out with this message to everyone, even to those who do not share the values of the Nobel Prize.

In its decision, the Nobel Foundation has also taken into account that in recent years, different practices have been applied in Stockholm and Oslo with regard to Nobel Day invitations. Henceforth, all parties that have parliamentary representation via democratic elections will be invited to the Nobel Day, and ambassadors from all countries that are diplomatically represented in Sweden and Norway, respectively, will be invited to the prize award ceremonies. The Nobel Foundation finds that this common approach promotes opportunities to convey the important messages of the Nobel Prize to everyone, and in future this practice will be common to the entire organisation.

Nobel Foundation

The Nobel Foundation is a private foundation established in 1900 on the basis of the will of Alfred Nobel and the founding statutes promulgated in connection with the will. Its primary purpose is to ensure that the intentions of the will of Alfred Nobel are fulfilled. The Foundation is responsible for ensuring that the assets made available for awarding the Nobel Prize are managed in such a way as to safeguard the economic base of the Prize in a long-term perspective and guarantee the independence of the prize-awarding institutions in their work of selecting Laureates. The Nobel Foundation is also entrusted with managing and carefully developing the trademarks and intangible assets that have been built up during the more than century-long history of the Nobel Prize.

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