The market value of the Nobel Foundation’s total invested capital amounted to SEK 5,176 m at the end of 2020. Excluding the value of the Foundation’s directly owned properties, investment capital amounted to SEK 4,882 m at the end of the year. During 2020, return on investment capital was +8.5%.
The Nobel Foundation is ultimately responsible for ensuring that the intentions of the will of Alfred Nobel are fulfilled. The main mission of the Foundation is to manage the assets left behind by Nobel, as well as the extensive intellectual property related to the Nobel Prize.
The institutions that Alfred Nobel designated in his will to select laureates choose the Trustees of the Nobel Foundation. The most important task of the Trustees is to appoint the Nobel Foundation’s Board of Directors and to examine the Nobel Foundation’s financial statements. At the meeting of the Trustees on Friday, 23 April 2021, the Nobel Foundation’s 2020 financial statements were presented.
The objective of the Nobel Foundation’s investment activities is to achieve a sufficiently high return over time to maintain the financial base of the Nobel Prize and guarantee the independence of the work of the Prize Committees in selecting the laureates. In addition, the Nobel Foundation aims to manage its assets in a way that considers long-term sustainable development and to otherwise follow good ethical principles in its investment activities.
During 2020, the Nobel Foundation continued its work with responsible investments, mainly by significantly reducing holdings related to fossil fuels via its asset managers and by choosing active managers that integrate sustainability criteria and objectives into their selection of companies.
The investment capital was allocated as follows: 48% (47) in equity mutual funds and index futures, 5% (9) in real estate funds, 15% (13) in fixed income assets and cash, 28% (31) in alternative assets and +4% (0.1) in accrued currency hedging gains.
In 2020 the Nobel Prize was raised from SEK 9 million to SEK 10 million per prize category. The work done in recent years to strengthen the Nobel Foundation’s financial standing has made it possible to increase the monetary award. The 2021 prize amount has now been established by the Nobel Foundation Board of Directors at SEK 10 million per prize category.
The Nobel Foundation’s Board of Directors as of 1 May 2021
Carl-Henrik Heldin, Professor, Chairman
Göran K. Hansson, Professor, Vice Chairman, Secretary General of the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences
Vidar Helgesen, Executive Director of the Nobel Foundation
Mats Malm, Professor, Permanent Secretary of the Swedish Academy
Tomas Nicolin, MSc
Thomas Perlmann, Professor, Secretary General of the Nobel Assembly at Karolinska Institutet and the Nobel Committee for Physiology or Medicine
Berit Reiss-Andersen, Attorney, Chair of the Norwegian Nobel Committee
Deputy members
Gunnar Ingelman, Professor, Secretary of the Nobel Committee for Physics
Peter Brzezinski, Professor, Secretary of the Nobel Committee for Chemistry
Other information
For the Nobel Foundation’s guidelines concerning responsible investments, click here.
The Nobel Foundation’s Annual Report for 2020 and an Annual Review are found here.