It is a great honour to be the chair of the Nine Dots Prize Board. The Nine Dots Prize is quite different from any other prize I know. It is not just for an achievement, it’s a prize that changes the way things happen.

When we set a provocative and important question, hundreds of people start to think about a major issue differently, and we get some fascinating responses to it from all around the world. It really is for new and different voices. Every candidate is looked at in complete anonymity.

We are really proud to have found our first two winners: the books that James Williams and Annie Zaidi have written are brilliant and thought-provoking – and have been read by thousands of people already.

The winner gets to come to Cambridge and discuss their work as it progresses, so that it feels like a project we are all committed to right through to publication day and beyond.

So we hope that this year’s question will get you thinking and writing. We look forward to seeing the submissions!

Professor Simon Goldhill