UNITED BY SCIENCE FOR A BETTER TOMORROW
It was a remarkable moment back in 2018 when Merck, a vibrant science and technology company, celebrated its 350th anniversary. At the Curious2018 – Future Insight Conference in July 2018, Merck announced a new research prize comprising up to €1 million per year, which is planned to be awarded for the next 35 years to honour and enable groundbreaking research in areas of high need for humanity, such as health, nutrition and energy. And on that day, a Tuesday, 17 July 2018, it was announced that the theme of the first prize was in a high-need area called “pandemic preparedness”. Who would have known that only 17 months later, a coronavirus would jump species barriers and form the worst pandemic that humanity has experienced since the flu pandemic a hundred…