Nov 17, 2016 02:49 AM EST By Julia Ramirez, UniversityHerald Reporter

The Yidan Prize, the world's most lucrative education prizes will be given for the first time. It will be awarded to individuals who make important contributions toward solving significant challenges in education.

Tencent's co-founder Charles Chen Yidan launched the Yidan Prize. They are now accepting nominations and announcement of will be on September and awarding ceremony will be held at Hong Kong in December.

An HK$15 million (US$1.9 million) in cash and HK$15 million await the recipients of Yidan Prize for Education Research and the Yidan Prize for Education Development respectively to help them pursue their projects, as reported by Forbes.

Chen, currently an adviser emeritus to Tencent, shared that his grandmother never attended school and is incapable of reading, yet her grandmother encouraged his father to pursue his studies in the university.

After graduation, his father changed the destiny of their entire family. His grandmother showed him that education is strength.

In 2006, Chen established his first charity foundation, now known as the Tencent Charity Foundation. This is the first ever charity foundation established by a Chinese Internet enterprise. The foundation focuses on youth education especially those who are not from well-off households.

During his trip to the States in early September, Chen encouraged a discussion on plans about the future of education. He also dealt with searching for candidates for the Yidan prizes at different universities like Columbia, Harvard, Massachusetts Institute of Technology and Stanford.

Chen shared that the American universities and education institutions he visited have already nominated qualified candidates. He also added that he is looking forward to see which universities are as passionate about education as he does.

He believes that the biggest challenge facing the Yidan Prize next year is the selection of the two winners. He trusts the selected committee in choosing the two winners.

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