This week, FNI director Iver B. Neumann was awarded the prestigious Nansen prize, for his ‘outstanding research in international politics’. The Fridtjof Nansen Prize for Outstanding Research goes to scientists who have produced research of exceptional quality and ‘international significance’. 

– I am proud and happy to win this prize, says Neumann. – I have won other prizes, but always abroad, never at home in Norway.

Neumann was presented with the award during a ceremony at the annual meeting of The Norwegian Academy of Science and Letters. The Nansen prize is one of the most prestigious awards in Norway. It is annually awarded to a Norwegian researcher, or a researcher permanently residing in Norway. Fridtjof Nansen's Prize for outstanding research was first awarded in 1903, and was created in the wake of the Fram Expedition's return home in 1896. The prize has two alternating categories; humanities/social sciences, and mathematics and natural science.

- I suppose I will just have to go on putting in long hours’, Neumann says with a smile, ‘this is an outstanding honour and means that I must try to keep up with former prize winners, says Neumann.

The winner gets a monetary award, a diploma and silver Nansen Medal, one of 49 medals awarded and/or approved by H.M. The King of Norway. The ceremony is followed by a dinner party where mayor of Oslo Marianne Borgen attended, as well as Norwegian esteemed academics such as Rector of the University of Oslo Svein Stølen, Rector of the University of Bergen Dag Rune Olsen, and Chief Executive of the Research Council of Norway Jon Arne Røttingen.

Read more about the 2020 award.