Finalists announced for Coller Dolittle challenge to decode animal communication
The Coller Dolittle Challenge for Two-Way Interspecies Communication has revealed the shortlist for its second annual US$100,000 prize – with a US$10 million Grand Prize on offer for the researchers that unlock the secret of two-way interspecies communication. The laureates include a team of NCCR researchers studying the similarities between bonobo and human communication.
The winner of the 2025–26 prize will be announced at a virtual event on 25 June 2026.
The Jeremy Coller Foundation and Tel Aviv University are today announcing the four finalists for the annual US$100,000 prize from the Coller Dolittle Challenge for Two-Way Interspecies Communication. The research spans zebra finches, African striped mice, chimpanzees and bonobos – each revealing groundbreaking new advancements towards human-animal communication.
Leveraging the latest AI innovations, the four teams – from the US, France and Switzerland – have uncovered trailblazing insights into the complexity of non-human communication. Within them, a research team led by Mélissa Berthet (University of Zürich), Martin Surbeck (Harvard University) and Simon Townsend (University of Zürich), members of the NCCR Evolving Language, has revealed that bonobos combine vocal calls into structured and meaningful sequences resembling human sentences. The findings suggest their communication system shares deeper similarities with human language than previously thought.
The prize winner will be announced live at a virtual event on 25 June 2026.
