Creating a better world through play

Every year, the Lennart Ivarsson Scholarship awards the BRIO Prize. The BRIO Prize was awarded for the first time in 1992 with an aim of promoting scientific research and development linked to children and toys. This scholarship is given either to a distinguished researcher or to a non-profit organization focusing on children and play. 

The Lennart Ivarsson Foundation was established in 1990 as a recognition of Lennart Ivarsson's lifelong work at BRIO AB. 

Receivers of the BRIO Prize

2017 Associate Professor Ylva Ågren, University of Gothenburg, Sweden

2016 Assistant professor Märit Jansson, researcher Åsa Klintborg Ahlklo, SLU (Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences), Sweden

2015 Let Toys Be Toys, volunteer-run grassroots campaign, UK. Visit website

2014 Michel Manson, toy historian and professor at University of Paris 13, France

2013 Sudarshan Khanna, Ph.D, National Institute of Design, Ahmedabad, India 

2012 Dr. David Whitebread, University Senior Lecturer in Psychology of Education, University of Cambridge, UK

2011 Ph Doctor Minna Ruckenstein, National Consumer Reearch Centre, Helsinki, Finland

2010 Svenska Scoutådets projekt Operation One World, Sweden

2009 Professor Gisela  Wegener-Spöhring, University of Köln, Germany

2008 Save the Children Alliance

2006/07 Professor David Elkind, Taft University, USA

2005 Ph.Doctor Cleo Gougoulis,Peloponnesian Folklore, Athens, Greece

2004 Ph. Doctor Jean-Pierre Rossie, University of Ghent, Belgium

2003 Sweden´s Child and Play Therapist´s Association, Stockholm, Sweden

2002 Professor Gilles Brougère, Université Paris-Nord, France

2001 Professor Jeffrey H Goldstein, University of Utrecht, Netherland

2000 Senior researcher B.A. Jörn Martin Steenhold, Copenhagen, Denmark

1999 Professor Dongju Shin, EHWA Womens University, Seoul, South Korea

1998 Nordic Center for Research on toys, NCFL, University of  Halmstad, Sweden

1997 Organisation Spiel Gut, Ulm, Germany

1996 Professor Stephen Kline, Simon Fraser University B.C., Canada

1995 Ph. Doctor Waltraut Hartmann,University of Vienna, Austria

1994 The Swedish Montessori Association

1993 Professor Brian Sutton Smith, University of Pennsylvania, USA

1992 Ph.Doctor Birgitta Almqvist, University of Uppsala, Sweden