Press release from the Nobel Foundation

The Nobel Week will assume new formats

20 July 2020 View in Swedish

The global pandemic and the COVID-19 situation are having a very broad impact on society. Events that bring together many participants are being postponed or reconfigured. This situation will also affect the 2020 Nobel Week, which will adopt new formats to celebrate and pay tribute to this year’s Laureates.

Each December all the Laureates, their families and many other guests usually gather in Stockholm and Oslo for a week filled with events and various types of meetings. This year the Nobel Week will assume new formats, since there are so many uncertainties about whether it will be possible for many people to gather in one place and for the Laureates and guests from other countries to travel to Sweden and Norway.

“The Nobel Week is a celebration of science, literature and peace efforts. This year, it feels especially important to highlight the achievements of the Laureates, which inspire us and give us hope for the future. The Nobel Week will not be as usual, due to the ongoing pandemic. This is a very special year − when everyone must make sacrifices and adapt to completely new circumstances – but we will be paying tribute in various ways to the Laureates, their discoveries and contributions,” says Lars Heikensten, Executive Director of the Nobel Foundation.

Announcements

The prize-awarding institutions expect to announce the Nobel Prizes as usual, this year during the period 5-12 October.

There are also plans to hold the public events – Nobel Calling Stockholm –which will take place at the Nobel Prize Museum and other venues around Stockholm, in alternative formats to comply with social distancing restrictions during the announcement week.

Nobel Prize Award Ceremonies

We expect to be able to carry out the Nobel Prize Award Ceremonies in Oslo and Stockholm on 10 December, using new formats that both comply with social distancing restrictions and take into account that only some or perhaps no Laureates will participate on site. On other occasions when Laureates have been unable to travel to Sweden or Norway, we have enlisted the help of our embassies and consulates abroad. That might be relevant this year.

Nobel Banquet

The Nobel Foundation’s Board of Directors has decided that the traditional Nobel Banquet at the Stockholm City Hall will not take place this year. Both the Nobel Banquet and the reception hosted by the Nobel Foundation and the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences at the Nordic Museum on the day before bring together over a thousand people in a limited indoor space. So it is unreasonable to hold these events in 2020.

Activities during the Nobel Week

The prize-awarding institutions are working to find mechanisms that are appropriate in view of the coronavirus situation in order to carry out the Nobel lectures. A new exhibition will be opening, which happens to be on the theme of the Nobel Banquet, at the Nobel Prize Museum in December. We will also carry out the Nobel Week Dialogue and the Nobel Prize Concert in modified formats during the week.

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.

Contacts
+46 8 122 084 45