The Descartes Prize was an annual award in science given by the European Union, named in honour of the French mathematician and philosopher, René Descartes. The prizes recognized Outstanding Scientific and Technological Achievements Resulting from EuropeanCollaborative Research. The research prize was first awarded in 2000 and was discontinued in 2007. The research prize was awarded to teams of researchers who had "achieved outstanding scientific or technological results through collaborative research in any field of science, including the economic, social science and humanities." . Nominations were submitted by the research teams themselves or by suitable national bodies. A science communication prize was also started in 2004 as part of the Descartes Prize but in 2007 was separated to the Science Communication Prize. Proposals received were judged and a shortlist of nominees were announced, from which five Laureates and five Winners were announced at a prize ceremony in December each year.
Laureates / Winners
Where a project coordinator was named, only that person was included here and none of the team members who are also "winners" or "laureates". Where no project "coordinator" was named, the team members are individually named.
2000 Winners: "Chemistry close to the absolute zero" ; "The XPD gene: one gene, two functions, three diseases" ; "Plastic transistors operating at 50 kHz for low-end high-volume electronic circuits"
2001 Winners: "Development of novel drugs against human immunodeficiency virus " ; "Development of new asymmetric catalysts for chemical manufacturing"
2002 Winners: "Towards new drugs for Multiple Sclerosis patients" ; "The universe's biggest explosions since the Big Bang"
2003 Winners: "Pinpoint positioning in a wobbly world" ; "Paving the way for roll-up screens and switch-on wallpaper"
2004 Winners: "Project MBAD"
2005 Winners: the EXEL team for "Extending electromagnetism through novel artificial methods" ; the CECA team for "breakthrough findings on climate and environmental change in the Arctic" ; the PULSE team for "demonstrating the impact of European pulsar science on modern physics" ; the ESS project, for "radical innovations in cross-national surveys; and the EURO-PID project for cutting-edge research on a group of over 130 rare genetically determined diseases known as primary immunodeficiencies".
2007 Winners: "SynNanoMotors The realisation of some of the world's first working synthetic molecular motors and mechanical nanomachines" ; "EPICA European Project for Ice Coring in Antarctica"
