The Size of the Nobel Prize 諾貝爾獎金之經營

 http://www.nobelprize.org/press/nobelfoundation/press_releases/2012/prize_amount.html

Press Release

June 11, 2012

The Size of the Nobel Prize Is Being Reduced to Safeguard Long-Term Capital

At its meeting on June 11, 2012, the Board of Directors of the Nobel Foundation set the amount of the 2012 Nobel Prizes at SEK 8.0 million per prize, at today's exchange rate equivalent to USD 1.1 million. This implies a lowering of the prize sum by 20 per cent. The Nobel Foundation regards this as a necessary measure in order to avoid an undermining of its capital in a long-term perspective.

One of the most important tasks of the Nobel Foundation is to safeguard the economic base of the Nobel Prize. The capital left behind by Alfred Nobel must therefore be managed in such a way that it will be possible to award the Nobel Prize in perpetuity, while guaranteeing the independence of the prize-awarding institutions.

The decision to lower the prize sum, from SEK 10.0 to 8.0 million, is related to the assessment that the Board of Directors makes today of the potential for achieving a good inflation-adjusted return on the Nobel Foundation's capital during the next several years. Another part of the picture is that during the past decade, the average return on the Foundation's capital has fallen short of the overall sum of all Nobel Prizes and operating expenses. The costs of the Nobel Foundation's central administration and the Nobel festivities are therefore being reviewed.
"The Nobel Foundation is responsible for ensuring that the prize sum can be maintained at a high level in the long term. We have made the assessment that it is important to implement necessary measures in good time," says Lars Heikensten, Executive Director of the Nobel Foundation.

The various organisations in the Nobel sphere also jointly manage large assets connected to the Nobel Prize as a trademark. This includes not only the Nobel Foundation and the prize-awarding institutions, but also the organisations that disseminate information about the Nobel Prize and the achievements of the Laureates, such as Nobel Media and the Nobel Museum in Stockholm and the Nobel Peace Center in Oslo. Since the Nobel Foundation's capital must be used primarily to pay for the work of the Nobel committees and the prize sum itself, these information activities are essentially externally financed, for example via grants from central or local government authorities, corporate sponsors, private donors, foundations or philanthropic entities.

The same is true of the investment in a Nobel Prize Center on the Blasieholmen peninsula in central Stockholm which was announced earlier. The equity of the Nobel Foundation will not be used either for the building or for the operation of a future Center.

"The Nobel Prize Center will become an important base in our long-term efforts to preserve the stature of the Nobel Prize and disseminate the message of the Nobel Prize to a global audience," says Lars Heikensten, Executive Director of the Nobel Foundation.

Contact: Annika Pontikis, Public Relations Manager, the Nobel Foundation
E-mail: annika.pontikis@nobel.se, tel: +46 8 663 14 70, mobile: +46 70 454 76 72, fax: +46 8 660 38 47


入不敷出 諾貝爾獎金打八折

〔編譯張沛元／綜合報導〕值此歐洲經濟危機方興未艾之際，諾貝爾獎主辦單位十一日表示，今年的諾貝爾獎得主所獲頒的獎金，將會比往年來得少，約莫打了八折。這是諾貝爾獎六十三年來首次削減獎金規模，撙節政策也將擴及其他相關開支。


各獎項 減為約三千四百萬台幣


諾貝爾基金會發表聲明指出，根據十一日的會議結論，董事會決定，二○一二年諾貝爾獎各獎項的獎金為八百萬瑞典克朗（約三千三百七十九萬台幣）；由於該基金會自二○○一年起獎金金額為一千萬瑞典克朗，前述最新決定意味削減獎金金額。
諾貝爾獎堪稱全球最負盛名的獎項，也是獎金額度最高的獎項之一，每年頒發醫學、物理、化學、文學、和平與經濟學獎給各領域的傑出人士。諾貝爾獎上次削減獎金金額是在一九四九年。
諾貝爾基金會執行董事海克斯坦表示，獎金縮水是很困難的決定，但由於金融市場波動甚大，金融危機陰影揮之不去，未來幾年的經濟前景看似都不會太好，因此「我們覺得現在就採取行動會比較好」。
諾貝爾獎的獎金來自該獎創辦人艾佛瑞德．諾貝爾遺產，海克斯坦說，儘管該基金會致力讓支出低於投資收益，但過去十年來已入不敷出。諾貝爾基金會成立於一九○○年，旨在管理可供頒發諾貝爾獎的資產，目前每年預算約一千七百萬美元（約五億一千萬台幣）。
諾貝爾基金會在一九九○年代曾因收益豐厚而調漲獎金，自一九九四年起，每個諾貝爾獎獎項的獎金從未低於七百萬瑞典克朗，二○○○年時甚至調升為九百萬瑞典克朗。但海克斯坦說，值此經濟前景不佳之際，該基金會的投資營收很難像過去那樣好。

海克斯坦坦承，經過通貨膨脹修正，縮水後的八百萬瑞典克朗獎金，價值相當於該獎在一九○一年首度頒發時的十五萬零七百八十二瑞典克朗。
海克斯坦還說，該基金會的長期目標是提高獎金金額，但也不能在歐債危機之際過於自滿，畢竟確保該基金會能持續給獎也很重要。他認為獎金縮水不會損及諾貝爾獎的根本價值。