NOBEL PRIZE 2020 The Nobel Prize is an international award administered by the Nobel Foundation in Stockholm, Sweden, and based on the fortune of Alfred Nobel, Swedish inventor and entrepreneur. ... A person or organisation awarded the Nobel Prize is called Nobel Laureate. Any of six international prizes awarded annually for outstanding work in physics, chemistry, physiology or medicine, literature, economics, and the promotion of peace. The Nobel Prizes, first awarded in 1901, are decided by members of Swedish learned societies or, in the case of the peace prize, the Norwegian Parliament.