The Senate of the Latvian Academy of Sciences (LAS) on 12 May 2026 has adopted a decision on the announcement of the LAS prize competition for the year 2027, thus continuing the tradition of honoring significant achievements in Latvian science and its popularization.
In the competition, it is planned to award six named prizes in various fields of science – the Arturs Balklavs Prize in science popularization, the Vilis Plūdons Prize in literary science, the Gustavs Vanags Prize in chemical sciences, the Kaspars Bušs Prize in forest ecology and silviculture, the Pauls Lejiņš Prize in agricultural sciences, and the Pauls Stradiņš Prize for outstanding scientific achievement in practical medicine (together with Rīga Stradiņš University).
Candidates for the named prize competition may be nominated by full members of the Latvian Academy of Sciences, councils of scientific institutions, senates or councils of universities or academies. The submitted works are evaluated by the expert commission of each prize. When nominating candidates for the prize, the following documents must be submitted to the expert commission in one copy:
- the nominator’s recommendation,
- the nominated work,
- information about the author (Curriculum vitae), indicating work and home address, telephone number, e-mail address,
- a short annotation of the submitted work in Latvian signed by the author, the title of the work in English.
Additionally, prizes and named prizes will also be awarded to young researchers: the Ludvigs and Māris Jansons Prize in physics, the Vitauts Tamužs Prize in mechanics, the Mārtiņš Straumanis and Alfrēds Ieviņš Prize in chemistry, the Emīlija Gudriniece Prize in chemistry or chemical technology, the Zenta Mauriņa Prize in literary science or philosophy, the Edvīns Vedējs Prize in organic chemistry for young Doctors of Science (together with the RTU Development Fund), two prizes for young forest scientists (together with JSC "Latvijas Finieris", LVMI "Silava"), as well as four LAS prizes for young researchers in the fields of science corresponding to the division of LAS departments.
The prizes on the basis of a competition of works are awarded to Master’s degree holders or doctoral students, or to young researchers not later than one year after the defense of a Master’s or Doctoral thesis. Works carried out by an individual scientist who, at the time of submission of the application, is not older than 30 years may be submitted to the competition.
Documents to be submitted for the competition:
- a motivated recommendation from a full member of the Latvian Academy of Sciences, a scientific institute or the senate or council of a higher education institution, which provides a brief evaluation of the work submitted for the competition and a characterization of the young scientist’s general scientific activities,
- the competition work, indicating on the title page the name of the institute or higher education institution, the title of the work in Latvian and English, the author’s name and surname, the city where it was carried out and the year, the supervisor of the work; the title page must include a reference to the LAS competition of works of young scientists,
- a short annotation of the work (up to 1 page) in Latvian, signed by the author,
- a list of published works (if any),
- an information sheet about the author of the work: name, surname, year and date of birth, workplace, doctoral studies, master’s studies or the year of their completion, home and work addresses and telephone numbers, e-mail address.
The works submitted to the competition are evaluated by LAS expert commissions. The awarded works are kept in the Academic Library of the University of Latvia, while the others are returned to the authors.
Materials, certified with a valid electronic signature, must be sent by e-mail to: senats@lza.lv by 25 September 2026. Inquiries by writing to: senats@lza.lv.
Regulations on the awarding of named prizes of the Latvian Academy of Sciences.
Regulations on the competition of works of young researchers of the Latvian Academy of Sciences.
