Five female winners, including one Taiwanese researcher, were announced Friday for the Gro Brundtland Award, established by its namesake, the first recipient of the Tang Prize in sustainable development in 2014, to promote related research.

Chen Chia-hsin, Project Researcher at the University of Tokyo, specializes in sustainability education and stakeholder collaboration for sustainable development, according to the Tang Prize Foundation.

She was joined by Bushra Khalid from Pakistan, Erlyn Rachelle Macarayan from the Philippines, and Mst Marzina Begum and Towfida Jahan Siddiqua from Bangladesh, to be recognized for their studies in sustainability.

Brundtland used NT$5 million (US$150,000) of the fund she received from the Tang Prize, Taiwan's highest private award for global achievement, to establish the Gro Brundtland Award to recognize distinguished researchers in her field.

The prize requires that candidates are female, younger than 40 years old, citizens of a developing country or Taiwan, and hold a research doctorate and carry out research related to public health or sustainable development.