Awards and medals

Thanks to the generosity of private donors, state organisms and enterprises, the Académie des Sciences awards about 80 prizes every year, in basic or applied research fields. Laureates are selected within a regulatory framework that ensures there is no conflict of interest. The juries of prizes that amount to less than €7,500, so-called “Prix Thématiques de l’Académie des Sciences” [“Académie des Sciences Thematic Prizes”], are composed by the members of the relevant sections. The “Grand Prix” [“Grand Prizes”], exceeding €15,000, fall under ad hoc juries that include members from different sections and, should the need occur, personalities from outside the Académie. In 2013-2014, 65 Grand Prizes, corresponding to a total sum of €2,044,951.50, and 78 Thematic Prizes, amounting to €322,485 in all, have been awarded by the Académie des Sciences.
All these prizes are awarded to the laureates during solemn ceremonies under the Cupola of the Institut de France.