Queen Mathilde Award + Baillet Latour Biomedical Award 2026

21 April 2026

In the morning Queen Mathilde handed out the annual award of her own Queen Mathilde Foundation, at the royal palace in Brussels.

From its establishment in 2000, Mathilde's Foundation has been supporting and awarding initiatives that help children and young people. In doing so she and her team have always used the principle "By young people, for young people", letting the new generations be part of the decision process. 

This year, the Queen Mathilde Foundation launched a new three-year cycle entitled “Let's Breathe!” to support projects related to early parenthood. In other words: giving (very) young parents breathing space by helping them with their challenges. 

Prior to the award ceremony, the Queen spoke with representatives of the selected projects, together with the chairpersons of the youth jury, who designated the laureate, Service d'accompagnement Périnatal "Pré-en-bulles".

In the afternoon a second award ceremony took place in Mathilde's presence.

At the Palais des académies in Brussels she presented the Baillet Latour Biomedical Award.

This year, the prize focused on metabolism and the gastrointestinal system. The Baillet Latour Biomedical Award aims to support the careers of promising young researchers in Belgium within the biomedical sciences. The support spans a period of 5 years and amounts to 1 million euros.