General
The Princess of Asturias Awards Ceremony is normally held in the second fortnight of October at the Campoamor Theatre in Oviedo.
Aimed at rewarding the scientific, technical, cultural, social and humanitarian work carried out at an international level by individuals, institutions or groups of individuals or institutions, the Princess of Asturias Awards are granted in eight different categories: the Arts, Literature, Social Sciences, Communication and Humanities, Technical and Scientific Research, International Cooperation, Concord and Sports.
Each Princess of Asturias Award comprises a Joan Miró sculpture symbolizing the Princess of Asturias Awards, a diploma, an insignia and a cash prize of €50 000. This amount is to be equally divided among the Laureates when the Award is shared.
In the case of Awards conferred on institutions or groups –for example, the Red Cross or the UN Blue Berets stationed in Ex-Yugoslavia–, the people who form, work for or are related to the entities that have received recognition are not considered to have been individually bestowed with the Award.
The Regulations have nothing to say regarding this possibility. Iker Casillas and Xavi Hernández received the Prince of Asturias Award for Sports in 2010 as members of the Spanish football squad, which was distinguished that year. In 2012, the Jury once more recognized in them certain individual characteristics that correspond to the spirit of the Award, which is why it decided to grant it to them again. A similar case is that of Pau and Marc Gasol, who were individually conferred with the Princess of Asturias Award for Sports in 2015, after having been granted it as members of the Spanish basketball team in 2006.
The Regulations do not contemplate the withdrawal of an Award. The Foundation’s Statutes stipulate that the granting of the Awards is the responsibility of the Jury corresponding to each category, which is duly appointed each year for this purpose in accordance with the Regulations, likewise approved each year. The Board of Trustees is to refrain from interfering or proceeding in any way whatsoever that may affect the independent judgment of the Juries, thereby respecting their independence. Each Jury takes its decisions in view of the information available to it each year with regard to each candidature. The announcement of its decision is rigorously prepared following the procedures duly established by the Foundation. It is impossible for the Jury to rule on events that may subsequently occur or is at least unknown at the time of rendering its decision.
12 people with family ties to each other have been distinguished with a Princess/Prince of Asturias Award.
- This succession of relationships began in 1985 when Ramón Carande Thovar received the Prince of Asturias Award for Social Sciences, an award that had been granted a year earlier, in 1984, to his nephew Eduardo García de Enterría.
- The most frequent family tie is that between couples, beginning with Nelson Mandela, 1992 Prince of Asturias Laureate for International Cooperation, and his wife, Graça Machel, bestowed with the same award in 1998.
Susan Sontag, 2003 Prince of Asturias Laureate for Literature, was partner to Annie Leibovitz, 2013 Prince of Asturias Laureate for Communication and Humanities.
Paul Auster, 2006 Prince of Asturias Laureate for Literature, is married to Siri Hustvedt, who received the 2019 Princess of Asturias Award in the same category as her husband. - Brothers Pau and Marc Gasol, distinguished with the Prince of Asturias Award for Sports granted to the Spanish basketball team in 2006, were individually and jointly honoured with this award again in 2015.
- The 2023 Princess of Asturias Award for Social Sciences was conferred on Hélène Carrère d’Encausse, after her son Emmanuel Carrère received the Award for Literature in 2021, making them the first Laureates to share a parent-child relationship.
Juries
The Laureates are chosen by a Jury made up of specialists in the respective fields of the eight categories that comprise the Princess of Asturias Awards. Each Award has its own Jury made up of approximately fifteen to twenty individuals, appointed each year by the Foundation in accordance with the criteria approved by its Board of Trustees, except for the Jury for the Princess of Asturias Award for Concord, which is larger in number and is made up of members of the Foundation’s Boards of Trustees.
The members of the Juries, who do not receive any financial remuneration whatsoever, are automatically re-appointed each year for a maximum of four consecutive Calls for Awards. There is no age limit to be a member of a Jury, but there are other restrictions that exclude those occupying high office in the Government of Spain or members of any of the higher institutions of any State.
Candidatures
The Regulations for the Awards stipulate that the following may submit nominations:
- Laureates from previous years;
- members of the eight Juries, provided they do not submit nominations for the award in the category corresponding to the Jury of which they are a member;
- Spanish embassies;
- diplomatic representations in Spain;
- renowned public figures and institutions;
- other public figures and institutions invited to do so by the Princess of Asturias Foundation.
Nominations are to be submitted following a specific procedure in terms of procedure and deadlines. The filling out and signing of the official form can be carried out by different means. It may be done via the Foundation’s website, subject to prior registration to obtain a username and password, following which the nomination, along with any additional attached information, may be submitted via the online platform to which access has been granted. The official form and accompanying documentation may also be sent via email or to the postal address of the Foundation’s offices.
In order for a nomination to be admitted for study, it must comply with the parameters defined in Articles 1 and 3 of the Regulations. In general terms, the Princess of Asturias Awards are conferred on those individuals and/or institutions that, through their work and merits in scientific, technical, cultural, social and humanitarian fields, contribute to progress and social well-being in an extraordinary and exemplary way. The repercussions of this work should always be considered in the broadest sense; that is, its contribution to the field should be of international scope and/or be acknowledged at an international level.
The candidatures of individuals, organizations and/or institutions who apply for an Award on their own behalf will not be accepted, nor will those submitted posthumously.
The expressions of support and endorsements may be submitted in accordance with the deadlines specified in the Regulations. Such expressions of supports may be sent via email or postal mail.
The Princess of Asturias Foundation maintains confidentiality regarding the nominations that reach its offices. The list of submitted nominations is not made public nor is any information regarding them disclosed, aside from reference to the number of candidatures that have been accepted and are eligible for each Award.
Being put forward as a candidate for a Princess of Asturias Award does not imply any type of support or endorsement whatsoever by the Foundation regarding the work or figure of those nominated.
Ceremony and cultural events
The ceremony is an event that is attended by invitation only, following criteria established by the Foundation itself. Each year the Foundation invites the following persons to the Campoamor Theatre, with seating for 1300 once space earmarked for technical needs has been ruled out: Laureates from previous years, its Boards of Trustees and Patrons, the Princess of Asturias Awards Juries, guests of the Laureates of that year, the authorities, political representatives, the diplomatic corps of the countries of origin of the Laureates and of Spain in these countries, chairpersons and directors of the media, vocational training, secondary school and pre-university students from Asturias with the best academic records, public figures and institutions from the world of national and international culture, and representatives of Asturian cultural, scientific and sports institutions, among others, in addition to private citizens who request an invitation directly from the Foundation.
The Foundation does not have volunteer programmes. Those interested in working at the Foundation can send their CV via the form available on the website. If you wish to set up a sponsorship, you should contact the Foundation’s Technical Secretary.
To a greater or lesser extent, the members of the Foundation’s staff have training in or knowledge of protocol in line with their position and responsibility. The Technical Secretariat of the Foundation is the department that integrates the management of protocol for the ceremony and official events in coordination with other departments of the institution –Laureates and Candidatures, and Communications— as well as with the departments of Protocol, Communication and Security of the Household of His Majesty The King.
The Laureates make their way to the stage of the Campoamor Theatre while the following fanfare is heard: Ayres for Cornetts and Sagbuts, by the English composer John Adson (1587-1640). His best-known work, Courtly Masquing Ayres (1621), to which the above piece belongs, is a collection of thirty-one lively, spirited dances, composed for different musical ensembles and instrumental groups.
The commencement of the solemn Princess of Asturias Awards Ceremony is accompanied by the Spanish national anthem (performed according to the guidelines established in Royal Decree 1560/1997, of 10th October). The City of Oviedo Royal Pipe Band performs the Asturias anthem live during the closure of the ceremony and the traditional Asturian piece for marching bands El Xarreru as the Laureates exit the theatre.
Only on one occasion, in 2020, as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic. With the primary goal of preserving public health and minimizing the risk of contributing to the spread of the virus, the event had a different format that year. It was held in the Salón Covadonga reception room at the Reconquista Hotel, Oviedo, with a greatly reduced number of participants, consisting only of the Laureates and the authorities, but no audience.
Given the exceptional situation generated by the pandemic, the Foundation’s Board of Trustees decided at an extraordinary meeting to move the presentation of that year’s Awards to a location other than the Campoamor Theatre. The Salón Covadonga is closely linked to the history of the institution, seeing as the founding charter of the Princess of Asturias Foundation (at that time, the Prince of Asturias Foundation) was signed there on 24th September 1980. It is also the setting where the Juries in charge of granting the Awards publicly announce their decisions and where each year’s Laureates are received in audience by TM The King and Queen.
Since 1996, the Foundation has scheduled different activities in diverse locations in Asturias aimed at making the Laureates and their contributions to the world of science, culture or any other field in which they work better known to society at large. Open to the public and free of charge, in many cases these events include the participation of the Laureates during their stay in Asturias. Under the name of “Awards Week”, the Foundation’s team puts together this programme of activities in which professionals, academics and prominent figures from different fields and disciplines collaborate. In recent years, the Foundation has been gradually incorporating new venues and formats into this cultural programme, re-claiming and fitting out abandoned spaces, or those no longer in use, with the aim of fomenting, through the Laureates’ work, new experiences that serve as ways of reaching out to society at large. The programme, which usually includes concerts, film cycles, talks, exhibitions and the like, is held in October in the weeks running up to the Awards Ceremony.
In 2015, the Foundation launched a cultural project entitled “Taking the Floor” as part of Awards Week. Aimed at the educational community of the Principality of Asturias, the purpose of this initiative is to bring the work and careers of the Princess of Asturias Awards Laureates into the classroom. In October, a delegation of the pupils who worked on the selected projects are invited –along with their teachers– to attend an event featuring the Laureates they considered in the classroom. Following the temporary suspension of “Taking the Floor” in 2020 due to COVID-19, the Foundation convened the 6th edition within the framework of the 2021 Awards Week, which concluded with 4029 participations by students from 74 schools in the region. Approximately 27 000 participations by students from 203 schools in the Principality of Asturias have been recorded since the programme was launched.