While not intended to celebrate any particular faith tradition or notion of God, the Prize seeks to recognize new understandings in the quest for progress in humanity’s efforts to comprehend the many and diverse manifestations of the Divine.
The Templeton Prize is awarded annually based on the decision of a panel of distinguished judges from various academic disciplines and religious traditions. We seek a diverse pool of worthy candidates and welcome nominations from around the world.
The public at large is encouraged to participate in considering and then making formal nominations of worthy, appropriate candidates. The Templeton Prize also directly solicits nominations from academic leaders, theologians, scholars, and scientists.
Nominators should consider that the Templeton Prize is not awarded for good works per se, such as humanitarian endeavors, but for a substantial record of achievement that highlights or exemplifies one or more of the various ways in which human beings express their yearning for spiritual progress.
Your nomination remains active over a period of five Prize years. You are welcome to update your candidate’s dossier at any time if matters of significance occur that would enhance your candidate’s nomination. This should be done by contacting the Templeton Prize Director at info@templetonprize.org. An update will be sent to you annually at the contact information on record regarding the status of your nomination.
THE 2013 NOMINATION PERIOD CLOSES ON JULY 1, 2012.
Nominations for the 2013 Templeton Prize will be accepted through Sunday, July 1 at 11:00 PM EDT. Submissions will be accepted only through the use of an online web form. The following information is required to complete your nomination:
- The nominator's name, organizational affiliation, and valid email address
- The candidate's full name, gender, organizational affiliation, and contact information
- A narrative explaining why the candidate is worthy of consideration for the Templeton Prize. This narrative can be of any length as long as it demonstrates the candidate's significant contributions to affirming life's spiritual dimension.
- A list of up to five relevant works (essays, book chapters, books, journal articles, lectures, blogs, or websites) that demonstrate the candidate's achievements or discuss the impact of the candidate's contributions to life's spiritual dimension. For those candidates with numerous publications, we ask that the nominator list only the works most relevant to the purpose of the Templeton Prize.
- A minimum of 3 (three) and a maximum of 5 (five) references who can speak to the qualifications of the candidate. Please list their names, organizational affiliation, and contact information, including email addresses.
Each nominator of a Prize candidate is expected to personally contact each person whom the nominator recommends to serve as a reference for their specific nomination candidate in order to confirm that person’s willingness to be a reference source.
The approving reference person should then send by email to the Templeton Prize office (info@templetonprize.org) his or her willingness to serve in the capacity of a “reference” person for a named nominee as requested by a named nominator.
Once the willingness of each reference person’s commitment to serve is received by email in the Templeton Prize office, then the Prize staff will undertake all the follow-up connections with each proposed reference person to assure that his or her own words of recommendation are received in advance of the deadline date for required materials.
The Prize staff will periodically inform the nominator during this review period on the status of the reference letters, reminding the nominator of the deadline for reference letter submission. Staff will also communicate with the nominator when the dossier is deemed complete.