Nobel Prize week dates confirmed

The 2026 Nobel Prizes will be announced over eight days from Monday 5 October, the Nobel Foundation has confirmed, with the first of the six awards just over a week away.

The schedule

The Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine will be announced first, on Monday 5 October, at 11:30 Central European Summer Time at the earliest. Physics follows on Tuesday 6 October and Chemistry on Wednesday 7 October, both at 11:45 at the earliest.

The Nobel Prize in Literature will be announced on Thursday 8 October at 13:00 at the earliest, and the Nobel Peace Prize on Friday 9 October at 11:00. The week closes with the Sveriges Riksbank Prize in Economic Sciences in Memory of Alfred Nobel on Monday 12 October at 11:45 at the earliest.

All six announcements will be broadcast live on the Nobel Prize's official digital channels. In British time, the announcements fall an hour earlier than the Central European times given.

Who decides

Each prize is chosen by a different body. The Nobel Assembly at the Karolinska Institutet selects the medicine prize, the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences chooses physics, chemistry and economic sciences, and the Swedish Academy picks the literature laureate. The Peace Prize is decided in Oslo by the Norwegian Nobel Committee, as Alfred Nobel's will requires.

Nominations are kept secret for 50 years, so there is no official shortlist. That does not stop speculation, and the days before each announcement bring a familiar round of predictions and betting.

A long tradition

The prizes were created by the will of Alfred Nobel, the Swedish chemist and inventor of dynamite, and were first awarded in 1901. The economics prize was added in 1968 by Sweden's central bank.

The laureates will receive their awards at ceremonies on 10 December, the anniversary of Nobel's death, in Stockholm and, for the Peace Prize, in Oslo.

Discover Brum will report each announcement as it happens in our Awards and Honours section, which already carries every Nobel Prize awarded since 2000.