Svalbard Global Seed Vault 2026 Princess of Asturias Award for International Cooperation

At its meeting in Oviedo, the Jury for the 2026 Princess of Asturias Award for International Cooperation, composed of Miguel Ballenilla y García de Gamarra, Miguel Carballeda Piñeiro, Ana Covarrubias Velasco, Pedro Duque Duque, Pilar García Ceballos-Zúñiga, Rodrigo García González, Cristina Garmendia Mendizábal, Charo Izquierdo Martínez, Íñigo Méndez de Vigo y Montojo, Baron of Claret, Pol Morillas i Bassedas, Juan Carlos del Olmo Castillejos, María del Mar Pageo Giménez and Isla Ramos Chaves, chaired by Gustavo Suárez-Pertierra and with Gloria Fernández-Lomana García acting as secretary, unanimously agrees to grant the 2026 Princess of Asturias Award for International Cooperation to the Svalbard Global Seed Vault, a genebank located under the Arctic soil and created to safeguard crop diversity in case of loss due to natural disasters, human conflicts or other circumstances.

Led by Norway and driven by an effective multilateral model, the Global Seed Vault brings together the collaboration of numerous countries, scientific institutions and international organizations around the common goal of guaranteeing the genetic basis of food systems and the knowledge accumulated over millennia by the different agricultural cultures around the planet.

Comprising more than 1.3 million samples representing thousands of varieties of crop plants, essential to human food security, the Jury has prized the silent cooperation of this critical, strategic infrastructure as a legacy for future generations.
Oviedo, 20th May 2026