PML’s Prof. Helen Findlay shortlisted as the UK’s National Champion for the US$1 million Frontiers Planet Prize to tackle planetary crisis

The Frontiers Planet Prize has today announced Professor Helen Findlay from Plymouth Marine Laboratory as UK’s National Champion for 2026.

Prof. Findlay is one of 25 exceptional scientists whose research advances our understanding of the Earth system, while offering practical, scalable solutions to help keep humanity safely within the planetary boundaries.

As the world’s largest global science competition dedicated to planetary health, the Prize awards three scientists $1 million each per year and fast-tracks transformative research with the power to shape real-world outcomes.

The research article that secured Prof. Findlay the National Champion award, in the ‘Building resilient ecosystems’ category, is ‘Ocean Acidification: Another Planetary Boundary Crossed’, published in Global Change Biology.

Bringing together the work of this year’s National Champions, Frontiers Planet Prize has released the ‘From Science to Policy: Planetary Solutions in Action’ report, developed with the Frontiers Policy Labs, United Nations University Centre for Policy Research (UNU-CPR), and the Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research, translating science into actionable policy pathways.

The research from Prof. Findlay and her international collaborators shows that ocean acidification has crossed a planetary boundary in surface and subsurface waters, affecting biodiversity and marine ecosystems. The report outlines pathways for revising planetary boundary benchmarks and integrating them into conservation and adaptation policies.

The collaboration team included Dr Richard Feely (National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, USA), Prof. Li-Qiang Jiang (University of Maryland, USA), Dr Greg Pelletier (Washington State Department of Ecology, USA) and Dr Nina Bednarsek (Oregon State University, USA).

Reflecting on the award, Prof. Findlay said:

“Our research updated the ocean acidification planetary boundary for the first time since 2009 using new evidence and knowledge; including observations of periods of aragonite undersaturation in the Arctic, and evidence of real-world impacts on marine life. Boundaries must reflect the latest science for society to act on them, and this work is helping to broaden discussions about the ocean’s role in the climate system outside the scientific community. I would like to express my deepest thanks to the Frontiers Planet Prize for nominating me as the UK National Champion and to the excellent scientists who collaborated with me on this research.”

PML’s Director of Science, Prof. Tim Smyth, comments on the accolade:

“We are immensely proud to see Helen named as the UK’s National Champion for the Frontiers Planet Prize. This recognition is a testament to the exceptional quality and real-world impact of her research, and it reflects exactly the kind of strong, solutions-driven science we need to address the serious environmental challenges of our time. On behalf of everyone at PML, congratulations Helen.”

The planetary boundaries framework defines nine Earth system limits within which humanity can thrive. Crossing them increases the risk of abrupt or irreversible environmental change. As multiple boundaries are now under extreme pressure, accelerating science-based consensus and implementation is critical.

Following an independent scientific assessment by 100 planetary health experts, chaired by Professor Johan Rockström, who developed the Planetary Boundaries framework, the National Champions now move forward to the final stage of the competition, where three of them will be selected as International Champions later this year and awarded 1 million USD each to scale-up their research globally.

Professor Johan Rockström, said:

“The twenty-five national winners of the 2026 Frontiers Planet Prize exemplify the diversity of research that is so urgently needed. Spanning a range of topics, disciplines, and methodological approaches, they share a defining quality: excellence in advancing our understanding of the Earth system and unlocking new frontiers in the solution space.”

“From Science to Policy: Planetary Solutions in Action highlights the urgent need to translate scientific insight into actionable policy solutions at the scale today’s challenges demand,” said Tshilidzi Marwala, Under-Secretary-General of the United Nations and Rector of United Nations University. “From pollution to climate change, pressures on people and planet are intensifying – requiring stronger links between science and decision-making. We are proud to partner with the Frontiers Policy Labs and the Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research to advance this effort.”

Professor Jean Claude Burgelman, Director of the Frontiers Planet Prize, said:

“We are no longer short of warnings, we are short of solutions and time. The science that exists to address the planetary crisis does not reach the right decisionmakers quickly and at scale. By identifying and supporting the most robust, relevant, and scalable research worldwide, the Frontiers Planet Prize helps turn truly transformative science into collective action for healthy lives on a healthy planet. In doing so, we hope to inspire the scientists around the world to step up the search for solutions. We really have no time to waste.”

As a National Champion, Prof. Findlay will have the opportunity to share her award-winning research through national and international conferences to facilitate the systemic change needed to safeguard our planet’s health. This is made possible through the support of the Prize’s strategic partners, including the Potsdam Institute of Climate Research Impact, the International Science Council, The African Academy of Sciences, and the Villars Institute.

The Frontiers Planet Prize Award Ceremony will take place on 18 January 2027 in Davos. Hosted by the Frontiers Science House, this landmark event will bring together thought leaders from policy, practice and philanthropy. It will place revolutionary science at the centre of the conversation, spotlighting innovations and solutions in which advances in planetary boundary science help inform the decisions that define our future.

Many congratulations to all of the 2026 National Champions and the full list of the Champions, categorized by their solutions, is as follows:

The future of water security

• Belgium: Professor Dr Ann van Griensven, Vrije Universiteit Brussel (VUB), Combined impacts of climate and land-use change on future water resources in Africa
• China: Hong Wang, Southern University of Science and Technology (SUSTech), Anthropogenic climate change has influenced global river flow seasonality
• Peru: Dr Joan Sanchez-Matos, Pontifical Catholic University of Peru (PUCP), AWARE characterization factors in Peru encompassing El Niño and climate change events: does increased water availability guarantee less water scarcity?
• Switzerland: Dr Liangzhi Chen, Swiss Federal Research Institute for Forest, Snow and Landscape Research WSL, Global increase in the occurrence and impact of multiyear droughts
• United States: Professor Amir AghaKouchak, University of California, Irvine; Global assessment and hotspots of lake drought

Emissions: Insights and solutions

• Canada: Professor Ahmed Abdulla, Carleton University, Integrating climate and physical constraints into assessments of net capture from direct air capture facilities
• Hungary: Dr Csaba Tölgyesi, University of Szeged, Limited carbon sequestration potential from global ecosystem restoration
• Norway: Dr Gunnar Myhre, CICERO Center for International Climate Research, Observed trend in Earth energy imbalance may provide a constraint for low climate sensitivity models
• Singapore: Dr Xunchang Fei, Nanyang Technological University (NTU), Methane emissions from landfills differentially underestimated worldwide
• Spain: Professor Manuel Soler Arnedo, Charles III University of Madrid (UC3M), Climate-optimized flight planning can effectively reduce the environmental footprint of aviation in Europe at low operational costs
• United Arab Emirates: Dr Steve Griffiths, American University of Sharjah (AUS), Chemistry advances driving industrial carbon capture technologies

Building resilient ecosystems

• Australia: Dr Ana Sequeira, The Australian National University (ANU), Global tracking of marine megafauna space use reveals how to achieve conservation targets
• Brazil: Dr Letícia Garcia, Federal University of Mato Grosso do Sul, Mapping Resilient Landscapes to Climate Change in a Megadiverse Country
• Colombia: Dr Olga Mayorga, Tibaitatá Research Center, Colombian Corporation of Agricultural Research (ARGOSAVIA), The contribution of local shrubs to the carbon footprint reduction of traditional dairy systems in Cundinamarca, Colombia
• Germany: Dr Gustavo Brant Paterno, University of Göttingen, Diverse and larger tree islands promote native tree diversity in oil palm landscapes
• New Zealand: Daniel Hernández-Carrasco, University of Canterbury, Ecological and evolutionary consequences of changing seasonality
• Poland: Professor Michał Bogdziewicz, Adam Mickiewicz University, Growth decline in European beech associated with temperature-driven increase in reproductive allocation
• Senegal: Dr Adama Lo, Ecological Monitoring Centre (CSE), Remote Sensing-Based Assessment of Dry-Season Forage Quality for Improved Rangeland Management in Sahelian Ecosystems
• United Kingdom: Professor Helen Findlay, Plymouth Marine Laboratory, Ocean Acidification: Another Planetary Boundary Crossed

Innovation and systemic change

• Argentina: Dr Andrea E. Izquierdo, Multidisciplinary Institute of Plant Biology (IMBIV), CONICET-National University of Córdoba, Integrating local and Indigenous knowledge with sustainable development goals in lithium mining impact assessment for a fair energy transition
• Austria: Dr Nicolas Roux, University of Natural Resources and Life Sciences, Vienna (BOKU), Integrating sufficiency in the trade and biodiversity agenda of the European Union,
• Finland: Dr Daniel Fernández Galeote, Tampere University, Play, games, and gamification to support sustainability transitions: a scoping review and research agenda
• Israel: Dr Alon Shepon, Tel Aviv University, The environmental and social opportunities of reducing sugar intake
• Japan: Professor Takuzo Aida, The University of Tokyo, Mechanically strong yet metabolizable supramolecular plastics by desalting upon phase separation
• The Netherlands: Dr Rutger Hoekstra, Leiden University, Beyond GDP: a review and conceptual framework for measuring sustainable and inclusive wellbeing

Previously, PML’s former Director of Science Prof. Steve Widdicombe was named as the UK’s National Champion for 2024 for his research ‘Unifying biological field observations to detect and compare ocean acidification impacts across marine species and ecosystems: what to monitor and why’ (co-authored by Kirsten Isensee, Yuri Artioli, Juan Diego Gaitán-Espitia, Claudine Hauri, Janet A. Newton, Mark Wells, and Sam Dupont).