Nature Publishing Group (NPG) supports the broadest participation of qualified scientists in scientific conferences. To further this goal NPG established the NPG Awards, which provide grants for conferees from countries with developing economies to attend Gordon Research Conferences. The aim of the NPG Awards is to help assuage one of the factors-lack of funds-which traditionally prevent these conferees from attending the Gordon Research Conferences.

Awards of up to $1,500.00 are made to support participants who meet the eligibility criteria. Only those who meet these requirements may be nominated for support, which is limited and available on a first-come first-served basis.

Prospective award recipients must be accepted to a Gordon Research Conference by the Chair in order to be eligible. Scientists, post-docs and trainees who are a citizen of, and work in developing nations are eligible for support. Please see the list of nations/regions that are NOT eligible. If the applicant resides and works in any other nation/area, they ARE eligible. Citizenship does not need to be from the country in which the applicant is working, but neither the country of citizenship nor the country of work can be on this list.

Only Gordon Research Conference Chairs can nominate a candidate. All Chairs receive nomination forms through the NPG Awards Program and should submit completed forms by return e-mail.

• Andorra
• Antigua and Barbuda
• Aruba
• Australia
• Austria
• Bahamas, The
• Bahrain
• Barbados
• Belgium
• Bermuda
• Brunei Darussalam
• Canada
• Cayman Islands
• Channel Islands
• Croatia
• Cyprus
• Czech Republic
• Denmark
• Equatorial Guinea
• Estonia
• Faeroe Islands
• Finland
• France
• French Polynesia
• Germany
• Greece
• Greenland
• Guam
• Hong Kong SAR
• Hungary
• Iceland
• Ireland
• Isle of Man
• Israel
• Italy
• Japan
• Korea, Rep
• Kuwait
• Liechtenstein
• Luxembourg
• Macao SAR
• Malta
• Monaco
• Netherlands
• Netherlands Antilles
• New Caledonia
• New Zealand
• Norway
• Oman
• Portugal
• Puerto Rico
• Qatar
• San Marino
• Saudi Arabia
• Singapore
• Slovak Republic
• Slovenia
• Spain
• Sweden
• Switzerland
• Trinidad and Tobago
• United Arab Emirates
• United Kingdom
• United States
• Virgin Islands (U.S.)

In 2008 NPG awards were made to 55 participants from 26 different nations including Mali, Malaysia, Armenia, The Republic of Georgia, Macedonia, Ethiopia and Nigeria. They attended 55 different conferences in many areas, such as neurotrophic factors, atomic physics, plant metabolic engineering and computer-aided drug design. In 2008, NPG Awards were made to twice as many recipients as in previous years, thanks to the addition of the 25,000 Euro prize that Nature received as part of its Principe de Asturias Award for Communication and Humanities.

Awardees in 2007 were from the following countries: Kenya, Venezuela, Brazil, India, South Africa, Argentina, Chile, China, Poland, Mexico, Zambia and Romania. There were 26 recipients in total. They attended conferences in many areas, including CO2 assimilation in plants, science and technology policies, industrial ecology and defects in semi-conductors.