TWAS-Samira Omar Innovation for Sustainability Award 2025 for Developing Countries

Applications are open for the 2025 TWAS-Samira Omar Innovation for Sustainability Award. TWAS is inviting nominations for the 2025 Award from all its members as well as science academies, national research councils, universities and scientific institutions in developing and developed countries.

• Table of Content
• About The World Academy of Sciences (TWAS)
• TWAS Samira Omar Innovation for Sustainability Award
• Aim and Benefits of TWAS Samira Omar Innovation for Sustainability Award
• Requirements for TWAS Samira Omar Innovation for Sustainability Award Qualification
• Interview date, Process and Venue for TWAS Samira Omar Innovation for Sustainability Award
• Application Deadline
• How to Apply

About The World Academy of Sciences (TWAS)

TWAS was founded in 1983 by a distinguished group of scientists from the developing world, under the leadership of Abdus Salam, the Pakistani physicist and Nobel laureate. They shared a belief that developing nations, by building strength in science and engineering, could build the knowledge and skill to address such challenges as hunger, disease and poverty. From the start, the Academy had essential support from Italian scientists and political leaders. The Third World Academy of Sciences, as it was first known, was inaugurated officially in 1985 during a ceremony attended by UN Secretary-... continue reading

TWAS Samira Omar Innovation for Sustainability Award

Aim and Benefits of TWAS Samira Omar Innovation for Sustainability Award

This annual award, named after the TWAS Fellow Samira Omar, recognizes the significant impact on the environment and biodiversity of scientists from least developed countries, with a monetary award of $4,000 generously provided by Professor Omar.

Requirements for TWAS Samira Omar Innovation for Sustainability Award Qualification

The 2025 award will be awarded to a scientist national of a Least Developing Country (LDC), living and working in a LDC during the last two years immediately prior to his/her nomination, based on scientific achievements in any of the thematic areas below:

- Clean and renewable energy
- Green chemistry
- Sustainable agriculture and agrobiodiversity
- Plastic: degradation, pollution and microplastics
- Water purification and sanitation
- Climate change: environmental effects, methane contribution, carbon capture
- Transportation technologies: efficiency for smart cities
- Waste management
- Biodiversity: the sixth mass extinction, ecosystem services, habitat recovery and restoration
- Ecological economics and planetary health

Every two years the award is aimed exclusively at women scientists.

Interview date, Process and Venue for TWAS Samira Omar Innovation for Sustainability Award

A nomination is considered complete only if includes all of the following information/material:

• Nominator contact details;
• Nominee contact details (self nominations are not accepted) and general information on the nominee;
• Authorization from the nominee (i.e. the candidate) to process personal data for the purposes of the nomination, in conformity to Art. 13 of the Italian Legislative Decree 196/2003. This authorization can only be submitted through the online platform. The privacy authorization form is available for download in the section ‘nominee’s personal data’. The form must be filled in and signed by the candidate and then uploaded onto the on-line platform;
• Suggested citation (15-20 words highlighting the nominee's scientific achievements);
• Supporting statement regarding the nominee’s contribution. Supporting statements should explain in detail the work performed by the candidate and its significance in the relevant scientific context. Clear reference should be made to the scientific impact of the nominee's work. Vague supporting statements will not be considered and will negatively affect the evaluation;
• Clear and detailed account of any time spent abroad by the nominee in the past two years;
• PhD: information on subject area, year and awarding institution;
• Brief information on membership in academies and societies;
• Brief information on awards and honours received;
• List of 10 most significant publications listed in an internationally acceptable format;
• The nominee's brief CV; 
• The nominee's complete list of publications are also to be uploaded, separately, onto the online platform;
• The nominee's h-index in Google Scholar, and the associated number of citations.

Application Deadline

How to Apply

The 2025 nominations can only be submitted electronically through the on-line platform by clicking on the “NEW NOMINATION” button at the bottom of this page.

To resume working on saved nominations, click on the "RESUME" button at the bottom of this page.

The extended deadline for receiving nominations is 14 March 2025, however we strongly recommend that you do not wait until the deadline but submit the nomination as early as you can to enable us to process it as quickly as possible.

Before starting compiling the nomination, PLEASE PAY PARTICULAR ATTENTION TO THE MAXIMUM CHARACTERS ALLOWED.

For more details, visit TWAS Award webpage