Physics: This category rewarded the best multimedia works coming from the field of physics and amounted to an award of 15,000 euro.[5]
Chemistry: This category rewarded the best multimedia works coming from the field of chemistry and amounted to an award of 15,000 euro.[6]
Mathematics: This category rewarded the best multimedia work coming from the field of mathematics and amounted to an award of 15,000 euro.[7]
Life Sciences:This category rewarded the best multimedia work coming from the field of life sciences and amounted to an award of 15,000 euro.[8][9]
Information and Communications Technology: This special category prize rewarded those multimedia works which represented a relevant contribution to Information and Communications Technology by means of a product, process, or service, and was deemed to be of particular significance to the jury in that the Pirelli Internetional Award was predicated in large degree to contributions such as these. The Information and Communications Technology prize amounted to 15,000 euro.[10][11]
Top Pirelli Prize: The Top Pirelli Prize was awarded by the international jury to a multimedia work which best embodied the philosophy of the Pirelli International Award. It amounted to an additional 10,000 euro on top of the monetary award granted in any of the five regular categories. The Top Pirelli Prize was first awarded in 2001 (five years after the inception of the Pirelli Award) to Robert C. Michelson for his work on the Entomopter, a biologically inspired insect-like aerial robot.[12][13][14]