Press release from the Nobel Foundation

The Nobel Foundation’s Board comments on the events within the Swedish Academy

10 April 2018 View in Swedish

Due to the development of events within the Swedish Academy, the Nobel Foundation’s Board met today to discuss the current situation. The Nobel Foundation follows the chain of events at the Swedish Academy with great concern, and considers the information regarding violations of Nobel Prize rules to be serious.

The very foundation of the Nobel Prize is the will of Alfred Nobel, with its clear vision of awarding prizes to those who have conferred the greatest benefit to mankind, regardless of nationality. The unique combination of scientific disciplines, literature and peace is also one of the greatest strengths of the Nobel Prize.

The uniquely strong position of the Nobel Prize has been achieved mainly thanks to the prize-awarding institutions which Alfred Nobel mentions in his will, and by their choices of worthy Laureates for more than a century. The good reputation the Nobel Prize enjoys today rests upon the competence, integrity and independence of its work. In future, these must continue to be the most fundamental guiding principles in the work of selecting Nobel Prize Laureates.

The Nobel Foundation’s mission is to secure the Nobel Prize’s finances and standing. It is work that is conducted with a long-term perspective. In his will, Alfred Nobel indicated which institutions would select Laureates. The Swedish Academy’s mission includes a duty to live up to Alfred Nobel’s intentions. In light of recent serious developments within the Swedish Academy, the Nobel Foundation’s Board wishes to reiterate the core aspects of the mission.

It is inevitable that a severe crisis at a prize-awarding institution also harms the Nobel Prize’s reputation. We can see that the trust in the Swedish Academy has been seriously damaged. It is not yet clear how this situation may tarnish the Nobel Prize’s reputation.

We see the following principles as central to restoring confidence in the Swedish Academy as a Nobel Prize-awarding institution: 

• That confidentiality and conflicts of interest are handled in accordance with both the Swedish Academy and the Nobel Foundation’s regulations. 

• The Swedish Academy ensures that the work on this year’s Nobel Prize in Literature can be carried out in a credible manner. 

• That suspected criminal acts are referred to and handled by law enforcement agencies.

It takes a long time to restore damaged confidence. The members of the Swedish Academy must put their mission ahead of individual interests and restore confidence in the Academy’s important work with the Nobel Prize in Literature.

The Nobel Foundation Board

Carl Henrik Heldin, Chairman

Göran K Hansson, Deputy Chairman, Permanent Secretary. in Royal Academy of Sciences

Lars Heikensten, Executive Director

Berit Reiss-Andersen, chairman of the Norwegian Nobel Committee

Thomas Perlmann, Secretary of the Nobel Assembly at Karolinska Institutet

Tomas Nicolin

Gunnar von Heijne, secretary of the Nobel Committee for Chemistry

Gunnar Ingelman, secretary of the Nobel Committee for Physics

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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