The singapore prize is a set of awards for books written in Singapore. The award is administered by the Singapore Book Publishers Association (SBPA).
Winners are chosen for their “innovative and transformational solutions for addressing some of our planet’s most urgent environmental challenges”. Each winning team receives S$500,000 to further develop their ideas into commercially viable and scaleable businesses. The winners were unveiled on 7 November at a star-studded Awards Ceremony hosted by the Prince of Wales at Mediacorp Campus in Singapore.
Among the 2023 winners, Accion Andina, GRST, S4S Technologies and WildAid Marine Program were honoured for their innovations in helping to protect biodiversity, reduce plastic waste, improve crop yields, and clean up waterways. They were selected from over a hundred applications in five categories: nature protection, clean air, ocean revival, food waste reduction and electric car batteries.
Britain’s Prince William joined celebrity actors Donnie Yen and Lana Condor as well as Australian wildlife conservationist Robert Irwin at the ceremony to present the Earthshot prizes in Singapore. He wore an old green suit by Alexander McQueen as he and the other presenters walked the “green carpet”. The 71-year-old said that the winners prove that hope still exists as solutions are being developed to address climate change, which is “alarmingly real” and is already having devastating effects on the planet.
A new prize called the Singapore History Prize was launched in January 2019 to recognise and celebrate outstanding work on Singapore’s past. The inaugural prize was awarded to NUS archaeologist John Miksic for his 491-page book Singapore and the Silk Road of the Sea, 1300-1800. The prize is a joint initiative between NUS Press and the National Museum of Singapore. Its Jury Panel includes Professor Kishore Mahbubani; Prof Peter Colcanis, Director, Global Research Institute, University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill; and historian Loh Kah Seng.
The NUS Prize seeks to broaden the definition of Singapore history and welcomes writing on any time period or theme that is relevant to the nation’s story. It also accepts creative works, such as plays and films, that have clear historical themes. Submissions are welcomed in all languages, but works published in a Singapore official language will be preferred.
The prize is a joint initiative between NUS and the National Museum of Singapore and will be awarded annually. The book with the highest overall score will be declared the NUS Singapore History Prize winner. The shortlisted titles this year are Nature’s Colony: Empire, Nation and Environment in the Singapore Botanic Gardens by Timothy P Barnard; The Land That Was Ours: A History of Singapore’s Urban Development, 1819-2019 by Claire Chiang and Squatters into Citizens: The 1961 Bukit Ho Swee Fire and Its Aftermath, by Loh Kah Seng. For more information, please visit the NUS Prize website. NUS Press is proud to have been a part of this exciting endeavour since its inception. The winner of the Singapore History Prize will be announced in 2024.