Antoine de Bengy Puyvallée awarded the Chr. Michelsen Prize 2026
Antoine de Bengy Puyvallée has been awarded the Chr. Michelsen Prize for outstanding development research for his article “The rising authority and agency of public–private partnerships in global health governance,” published in Policy & Society in 2024.
The article critically examines the rise of public–private partnerships (PPPs), which many aid donors, including Norway, now promote as the principal new mechanism for financing development aid. Global PPPs have typically been conceptualized as arenas for voluntary public–private cooperation rather than as agents of global governance - seen as less bureaucratic and more effective. Through an in-depth analysis of five public – private partnerships, de Bengy Puyvallée challenges this view and convincingly argues that we are witnessing the emergence of a “sub-class” of highly institutionalized partnerships that are developing into transnational bureaucracies. Link to the article here.
A strong and timely contribution
In its justification, the Prize committee highlights that the article is “exceptionally strong and very timely”. The analysis is praised for being very well written and carefully structured, making a complex subject both accessible and analytically rigorous. The argument is firmly grounded in extensive and meticulous document analysis, giving the findings strong empirical backing and enhancing the article’s credibility and contribution to the field. Overall, the committee finds Antoine de Bengy Puyvallée to be a very timely and worthy recipient of the Chr. Michelsen Prize for outstanding development research for 2026
About the prize winner
Antoine de Bengy Puyvallée is a postdoctoral fellow at the Centre for Global Sustainability, University of Oslo. His research focuses on global health governance, pandemic preparedness and response, new forms of global cooperation and the role of private foundations in global governance. Despite being an early-career scholar, de Bengy Puyvallée already has an extensive body of work on global health politics. Read more about the winner here.
About the Chr. Michelsen Prize
The Chr. Michelsen Prize for outstanding development research is awarded every two years to a researcher under the age of 40 for an exceptional peer‑reviewed article. The NOK 50,000 prize is awarded by the fund Nationalgaven til Chr. Michelsen and aims to promote high‑quality and societally relevant development research.