The Antarctic and Southern Ocean Coalition (ASOC) was awarded the 2025 Gulbenkian Prize for Humanity, worth one million euros, in recognition of its work to protect one of the world’s most crucial and fragile ecosystems and to preserve one of the planet’s most remote regions.

The winner was announced by the Chair of the Jury and former German Chancellor, Angela Merkel, during the Gulbenkian Prize for Humanity award ceremony, held at the Calouste Gulbenkian Foundation on July 9, 2025. The ceremony also featured speeches by the President of the Calouste Gulbenkian Foundation, António Feijó, and the President of the Portuguese Republic, Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa, as well as a statement from the winning coalition, which will be able to expand its work with the prize money and support projects such as the creation of large-scale marine protected areas in the Southern Ocean – the part of the global ocean that surrounds the polar continent.