For assistance with the scrutiny necessary for the prize adjudication and for promoting the objectives of the Foundation in other ways, the prize-awarding bodies may establish Nobel Institutes.

Statutes of the Nobel Foundation, § 12

Nobel Committee secretariat

The Norwegian Nobel Institute was established 1 February, 1904, tasked with supporting the Nobel Committee in its review of nominations and candidates for the Nobel Peace Prize. According to § 12 of the Nobel Foundation statutes, "each Nobel Institute shall be under the leadership of the prize-awarding body that established it." The Director of the Institute is the Nobel Committee's permanent secretary, and the Institute can be regarded as the Committee's secretariat. The events in December are all planned and coordinated through this office.

Physical location

The first few years the Institute rented offices in Victoria Terrasse in downtown Oslo, but by May 1905 the move was made to the present building in Henrik Ibsens gate 51. The award ceremony was moved there the same year, having previously taken place in the Storting (Norwegian Parliament). The building, originally constructed in 1867 as a private residence, had by then undergone extensive renovation.

Internal and external functions

The Institute contains offices, a meeting room, the Grand Hall, a research department, library and reading room. The Nobel Committee meets in a special meeting room devoted exclusively to this purpose. The tradition has gradually developed of using the Institute’s Grand Hall both for the announcement of the year's Peace Prize in October and for the Laureate's press conference on 9 December, the day before the award ceremony in Oslo City Hall.

Public activities

The Nobel Institute arranges meetings, lectures and seminars, as well as so-called Nobel Symposia. The symposia are attended by specially invited academic scholars, experts and decision-makers from many countries who gather to discuss selected topics relating to peace and conflicts.