Frontiers Planet Prize presented by Frontiers Research Foundation

The Frontiers Planet Prize recognises transformational research that shows the greatest potential to address the world’s most urgent environmental challenges such as stratospheric ozone depletion, loss of biosphere integrity, chemical pollution, climate change, ocean acidification, freshwater consumption, land system change, novel entities, atmospheric aerosol loading.

It welcomes breakthrough research across all disciplines, on condition it is focused on planetary boundaries and presents original research findings or insightful reviews and syntheses that help to reduce the destabilization of the Earth system.

As official National Nominating Body, BOKU University will select three submissions to advance to the National Representative Body (Austrian Academy of Sciences), which will then elect the top three nominations from their NNB network to represent the country to the international Jury of 100.

Each year, three Global Winners are awarded USD 1 Million each. In addition, there will be one national champion selected for each country.
 

Research requirements:

Research must be based on one research article, published in established, peer-reviewed scientific journals, with robust peer review and transparent publication procedures.

  • The research outlines actionable solutions or pathways that can be implemented in policies, adapted commercially, or otherwise contribute to keep global development within planetary boundaries.
  • The research advances the scientific understanding and quantification of planetary boundaries. It explores how planetary boundaries are affected or impact life support systems / the Earth system or investigates the implications of adopting planetary boundaries thinking across disciplines, sectors and activities/applications.
  • The research must connect to several planetary boundaries at the Earth system scale. Research that explores interactions / relations between multiple planetary boundaries will be prioritized.

The article’s acceptance date must fall within November 1st 2023 to October 31st 2025.
 

Assessment:

Each submission will be assessed by an independent international jury based on:

  • Applicability of the research results
  • Scalability of the application
  • Number of planetary boundaries involved
  • Contribution to general understanding of Planetary boundaries
  • Scientific novelty
  • Research quality


Eligibility requirements:

  • Lead author of a peer reviewed scientific publication
  • Research was carried out and documented in compliance with recognized standards of good scientific practice
  • BOKU served as the primary research institution during the conduct of the research
  • Candidates must be employed at BOKU University


Required documents:

  • PDF of the publication
  • Application form (Download here)
  • 1-page English summary outlining the relevance to planetary boundaries
  • CV of the lead author (max. 2 pages)
  • A signed statement from the applicant confirming that all co-authors have approved the submission of the publication and have agreed to the lead author’s authority to submit the work and represent the group in all matters pertaining to the prize.

Submission Deadline: 10th October 2025

Please send your submissions to researchfunds(at)boku.ac.at

“The environmental and ecological challenges facing our planet are colossal, demanding immediate attention. They can be tackled only with a concerted global effort and an intelligent, pragmatic approach, and by uncovering the best ideas in the field of planetary boundary science.”

Application Call (PDF)

Information: 

Frontiers Planet Prize-how it works: https://www.frontiersplanetprize.org/how-it-works

 FAQs: https://www.frontiersplanetprize.org/faq

Terms and conditions: https://www.frontiersplanetprize.org/app-terms

BOKU Research Funds 
researchfunds(at)boku.ac.at
Martina Ragoner, Tel.: +43 1 47654-33011 
Johanna Stöger, Tel.: +43 1 47654-33017