Nature's prize donated to philanthropic fund
Nature Publishing Group (NPG) has announced that it will be contributing the cash received by winning the Principe de Asturias Award to a philanthropic fund, NPG Awards. Philip Campbell, Editor-in-Chief of Nature, and Annette Thomas, CEO of Macmillan, accepted the 2007 Principe de Asturias Award for Communication and Humanities at a recently held ceremony in Oviedo, Spain. The award was made jointly to NPG’s flagship title, Nature, and the journal Science.
The two publications will share a prize of €50,000 and NPG will use Nature’s share to boost the NPG awards, which help researchers from the developing world attend Gordon Research Conferences. Launched in June 2006, the NPG awards provide funds of up to US$1,500 to help delegates from developing countries attend the internationally renowned conferences. The awards are made based on nominations made by conference chairs, and are open to those who live and work in eligible countries and have been accepted to attend.
The addition of €25,000 to the philanthropic fund will allow NPG to support many more researchers to attend the conferences. In 2007, NPG awards were made to 26 participants who attended 21 different conferences and were from Kenya, Venezuela, Brazil, India, South Africa, Argentina, Chile, China, Poland, Mexico, Zambia and Romania.
Nature also runs a mentoring awards scheme.