Education is a field of interest that means a lot to philanthropists. Our founder Dr Charles Chen Yidan is no exception. He believes education is the key to changing one’s life for the better, tackling various problems in society and, ultimately, making the world a better place.

A global award, a brighter future

In 2016, he founded the Yidan Prize – the world’s largest international prize in education – which embodies his grand vision for the future, but the prize itself has more to offer than money.

With the mission to create a better world through education, the Yidan Prize reaches out to the world to recognize individuals with outstanding achievements in education research and development.

Each winner will receive HK$30 million (equivalent to US$3.8 million), split into a cash award of HK$15 million and a project fund of HK$15 million.

The prize comprises two categories: the Yidan Prize for Education Research, which recognizes outstanding research that makes significant contributions to education, and the Yidan Prize for Education Development, which recognizes innovative ideas that tackle pressing challenges in the field of education.

Dr. Chen once said: “Today’s education system is no longer suited to today’s society, where physical, digital and biological systems have been constantly changing and combining in new ways. It is time for us to rethink who we are educating, how we are educating them, and why we are educating them the way we are. We need to rethink the outcomes we expect.”

According to him, the prize is about putting the spotlight on the best and brightest the world has to offer, convinced that the groundbreaking work being done by the few will become the resource of the many.

Bringing innovative ideas to life

Being forward-looking is what makes the Yidan Prize special. With half of the prize as a project fund, it intends to support outstanding education projects to scale up and scale out across the globe.

Projects undertaken by our inaugural laureates – Professor Carol S. Dweck, Lewis and Virginia Eaton Professor of Psychology at Stanford University, and Vicky Colbert, founder and director of Fundación Escuela Nueva – are two prime examples.

Professor Dweck’s decades-long research on “growth mindset” demonstrates how a focus on process rather than outcome can have a tremendous impact on students’ prospects of achieving their full potential. Ms Colbert’s “Escuela Nueva” (new school) model has been improving the quality of rural education across 14 countries in the developing world, touching the lives of over 5 million children. With passion and continued commitment, both of our esteemed Inaugural Laureates set a good example by personally putting their research and belief into practice.

In addition to financial support, another way to amplify their impact is to connect our laureates to the global education community for a robust discussion on the most pressing issues facing the world.

Since the nomination process reopened in September 2017, the two laurates have been on tour in Europe, Asia and North America sharing their ideas with educators. Following the success of the Yidan Prize Summit in Hong Kong last year, at which Professor Dweck and Ms. Colbert have shared their insights with over 350 world leaders on education, they recently spoke at other Yidan Prize conferences – in partnership with Jesus College, the University of Cambridge and the Harvard Graduate School of Education.

Calling for nominations for the Second Yidan Prize

The nomination period for the Yidan Prize closes on March 31, 2018. Two prize winners will be announced in September this year, followed by a prize presentation ceremony and the Yidan Prize Summit in December.

I would like to invite you to nominate the best candidate(s) that you see in the education landscape based on the Prize criteria.

Nominees can be either individuals or teams of up to three representatives, who can be teachers, researchers, academics, policy makers and advocates among others.

For information, please visit our website: www.yidanprize.org

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