WISE Horizon’s lead Rutger Hoekstra awarded National Champion of the Frontiers Planet Prize
22nd April 2026
Rutger Hoekstra, WISE Horizons lead, has been named the Dutch National Champion for the Frontiers Planet Prize. Three global winners will be chosen from the 25 nominees announced on Earth Day, 22nd April 2026. The award celebrates a paper published in The Lancet Planetary Health which reviews and synthesises Beyond GDP metrics. Lead author was PhD candidate Annegeke Jansen, with co-authors Ranran Wang, Paul Behrens, and Rutger Hoekstra.
The prestigious Frontiers Planet Prize recognises transformational research with the power to tackle our most urgent environmental challenges. Each year, three International Champions receive 1 million US Dollars each to accelerate and scale up the impact of their work.
For 2026, the article Beyond GDP: a review and conceptual framework for measuring sustainable and inclusive wellbeing, published in The Lancet Planetary Health by Annegeke Jansen, Ranran Wang, Paul Behrens and Rutger Hoekstra, was the basis for awarding the National Champion for the Netherlands. “A fantastic honour and recognition of our research towards a better measurement of prosperity and wellbeing”, says Hoekstra. The paper builds on the WISE Horizons synthesis of WISE metrics, conducted during the early stages of our project.
The research synthesises five decades of ‘Beyond GDP’, thereby providing a foundation for harmonised metrics across the globe. “Because a true replacement for GDP is still lacking”, says Annegeke Jansen, PhD candidate at the Institute of Environmental Sciences at Leiden University. “Dozens of systems and indices now exist. As a result, confusion arises and it becomes difficult to develop a shared alternative.”
To address this, the research introduces a dashboard of indicators measuring progress, oriented around wellbeing, inclusion, and sustainability. These three dimensions are visually embedded in the “WISE triangle”. It lies at the heart of the WISE Horizons project – in the spirit of creating common ground and momentum instead of debating each other. “This is not another new metric”, Jansen highlights. “It’s a synthesis – a compass that connects the incredible work already being done across the field.”
Video: The WISE Triangle and how it opens new paths toward sustainable and inclusive wellbeing
The three final winners of the Frontiers Planet Prize will be announced at an Award Ceremony in January 2027. Follow us on LinkedIn and subscribe to our newsletter for updates on our work and the award outcome!