The Templeton Prize, which carries a stipend of $1.4 million, is awarded annually to an individual who has “made an exceptional contribution to affirming life’s spiritual dimension.” Previous winners include Anglican Archishop Desmond Tutu, the Dalai Lama, Michael Novak, Charles Colson, Father Stanley Jaki, Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn, Billy Graham, Chiara Lubich, and Mother Teresa of Calcutta. Collins, director of the National Institutes of Health since 2009, is a Christian and member of the Pontifical Academy of Science. In 2018, the USCCB criticized his defense of the research use of fetal tissue derived from elective abortions.