Section 1: The Prizes

1. The Rappaport Prize for Excellence in the Field of Biomedical Research will be awarded annually to eligible scientists for their excellent, groundbreaking or innovative medical or biomedical research.

2. The prizes will be awarded annually in three categories:

• Researcher with a proven scientific achievement (“Prize A”);
  
• Promising young researcher (“Prize B”).
  
• Four doctoral (PhD) students in an Israeli university, in advanced stages of their studies and who have already made significant and important research achievements (“Prize C”).
  

3. The value of the Prize is $50,000 for the laureate of Prize A; $30,000 for the laureate of Prize B and $7,500 for each laureate of Prize C (a total amount of $ 30,000 for the four laureates).

4. Criteria for Awarding the Prize divided into two categories (A and B):

• Prize A - Research with the potential to advance the health of mankind;.
  
• Prize B - The research must be groundbreaking or exceptionally innovative with implications and/ or demonstrating advancement to a specific medical or research field, for example, by developing a new drug or new approaches for treating a specific disease.
  

5. Prizes will be awarded to two individuals and will not be awarded to institutions or organizations.

6. In the case of joint work by two or more researchers, or in the case of similar achievements, the committee reserves the right to allocate the Prize to several researchers.

Section 2: Nominees

1. Nominees must be Israeli citizens who are actively engaged in research, most of which is performed in Israel, and they must reside in Israel.

2. Nominees who have previously been awarded a major prize in Israel or abroad (e.g. Israel Prize, EMET Prize, Wolf Prize etc.) are not eligible for nomination for the same achievement for which they were already awarded another prize.

3. Previous laureates of a Rappaport Prize in the same category (Prize A and B only) are not eligible for nomination. 

4. The committee reserves the right to nominate any candidate it deems eligible for the Prize, even after submission of nominations has closed.

5. [deleted]

6. Under special circumstances, the committee may approve nominees who do not meet the criteria of clause 1.

Section 3: Committee and Central Administration

1. Selection of the most worthy nominees will be performed by the Rappaport Prize Committee for Excellence in the Field of Biomedical Research (the “Committee”).

2. Committee members are listed in Appendix A of the regulations.

3. Each year a Committee member will chair the Committee.

4. Functions of the Committee:

• The Committee will determine the Prize laureate each year and, to this end, will screen the nominees with assistance from the Committee’s Central Administration. The election of nominees will be made at the Committee’s discretion;
  
• The Committee reserves the right to appoint an ad hoc panel of judges with whom it may confer regarding eligible nominees and the Committee will define the tasks for the various panels; 
  
• The Committee will consult with other experts as it sees fit;
  
• A protocol will be recorded for every Committee meeting. Information on nominees will remain confidential;
  

5. The Committee’s Central Administration is defined in Appendix A of the regulations.

6. Functions of the Central Administration at the Rappaport Institute:

• Publicizing the opening of submissions, and producing an application form for the submission of nominations;
  
• Organizing the collection of the names and forms of nominees;
  
• Performing an initial screening of nominees to determine their basic eligibility;
  
• Presenting a list of nominees that the Central Administration deems not eligible to the Chairman of the Committee, for review and approval of the Committee’s decisions;
  
• Contacting nominees regarding incomplete forms for the purpose of clarification and/or additions and/or retractions and/or explanations, etc.;
  
• Notifying nominees of Committee’s decisions;
  
• Coordinating the Awards Ceremony.
  

7. Legal counsel and Representative of The Bruce and Ruth Rappaport Foundation: Attorney Moriel Matalon, Gornitzky & Co. Law Offices.

8. Prize manager: Adv. Eran Brauer, GM, Israel Philanthropy, The Bruce and Ruth Rappaport Foundation

9. Committee’s Chief Administrator: Ms. Sivan Avitan of the Rappaport Institute.

Section 4: Procedure for Submission of Nominations

1. Eligibility for submitting a nomination:

• Anyone may nominate another person for the Prize (Prizes A and B). Parties may not nominate themselves;
  
• Nominations may be submitted only by an individual, and not by an institution or organization (Prizes A and B).
• Prize B will be awarded to a nominee based on the following criteria:
• The researcher is in the range of up to 10 years from the beginning of his work as an independent researcher (usually completion of a postdoctoral fellowship and a first academic appointment).
  
• For Prize C, the nominees will be chosen by their respective Israeli universities. Each university can submit up to 5 nominees. 
  

2. Submission of Nominations in Writing:

• Nominations may be submitted in writing in Hebrew or English, together with documents to assist in appraising the nominee, as specified in clause 3 of this section.
  
• The Prize Management will publicize, annually or biennially at its sole discretion, the opening of submissions for nominations together with a submission deadline. The opening of submissions will also be publicized to directors of Israeli institutes of higher learning and Israeli hospitals and will be published in a daily newspaper; 
  
• If submissions do not open in any given alternate year, the list of nominees will be comprised of nominees from previous years whom the Committee believes to be exceptional and eligible to be nominated again.
  

3. Nominations must include:

• A concise resume of the nominee as defined on the Prize website;
  
• A list of no more than 20 important publications relevant to the nomination; 
  
• A description of the nominee’s research achievements together with an explanation as to why the research is worthy of the Prize;
  
• No more than three letters of reference. For Prize C, two letters of reference are sufficient including one from the nominee’s mentor;
• When submitting an nomination for Prize C, a certificate from the university must also be attached, stating that the nomination is submitted with an approval of the responsible principal in the university (usually the Rector).
  

4. Instructions for submission of nominations can be found online on the Rappaport Prize website.

5. Submission of nominations must be made before the publicized submission deadline.

Section 5: General Rules

1. The names of the laureates will be publicized prior to the Awards Ceremony. 

2. The Prize will be awarded annually in March.

3. The Prize will be awarded at an Award ceremony held by the Bruce and Ruth Rappaport Foundation which faithfully conveys the purpose of the Prize.

4. Prizes will be awarded to nominees on the basis of their unique contributions, irrespective of race, religion, gender or nationality, and without consideration of their affiliation to any particular institution.

5. The Committee will discuss any conflict of interests on a case by case basis.

Appendix A to Regulations:

Prize Committee Members 2023 (2024 committee members will be published on Dec 1, 2023):

The Prize Committee consists of the following members:

Prof. Aaron Ciechanover

2004 Nobel Prize Laureate for Chemistry

Prof. Mordechai (Moti) Segev

The Robert J. Shillman Distinguished Professor of Physics

Technion, Israel Institute of Technology

Prof. Gideon (Gidi) Rechavi

Head, Sheba Cancer Research Center

Sackler Faculty of Medicine, Tel Aviv University

Prof. Adi Kimhi

Molecular geneticist 

Weizmann Institute of Science

Prof. Yehudit Bergman

Epigeneticist, Department of Developmental Biology and Cancer Research, Hadassah Medical School, Hebrew University of Jerusalem

Rappaport Prize laureate, 2021

Prof. Batsheva Kerem

The Department of Genetics,

Hebrew University of Jerusalem

Prof. Yosef Yarden

Department of Immunology and Regenerative Biology, Faculty of Biology

Weizmann Institute of Science

Committee’s Central Administrator: 

Dr. Michael Kanovsky 

Doctor of Molecular Biology, Mount Sinai Hospital, NY