Prizes and Distinctions

The European Commission has selected the EUROPA project as the winner of the “Frontier AI Grand Challenge”—one of Europe’s most prestigious funding competitions for artificial intelligence. The Italian AI company Domyn, with support from the Fraunhofer Institute for Intelligent Analysis and Information Systems IAIS and for Integrated Circuits (IIS), will develop a state-of-the-art open-source model in the Frontier class.

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The audience at the AAS Solutions Summit 2026 honored the Industrial BaSyx solution with the AAS Solutions Award 2026. Frank Schnicke from the Fraunhofer Institute for Experimental Software Engineering IESE and Alwin Hoffmann from XITASO GmbH presented the solution at the event. The award recognizes both an outstanding Asset Administration Shell (AAS) solution and a presentation that particularly impressed the audience.

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Yasmine Hildebrand from the Fraunhofer IST was awarded the TUmorrow Award 2026 of the Technical University of Braunschweig in the category “Outstanding Bachelor’s Thesis.” The award recognizes academic work that makes a significant contribution to sustainable and future-oriented development.

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On May 20, the Beutenberg-Campus Jena e. V. presented its science awards at the Beutenberg Campus Jena. On behalf of a team from three collaborating institutes, Dr. Anne-Sophie Munser from Fraunhofer IOF, along with colleagues from Leibniz HKI and Leibniz IPHT, received the prize for »outstanding interdisciplinary collaboration«. Together, they developed a high-throughput platform for detecting microbial antibiotic resistance. The novel method enables the diagnosis of antibiotic resistance within a few hours and holds great potential for clinical application.

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Matthias Günther, Deputy Institute Director of Fraunhofer MEVIS, was designated Fellow of the Society at this year’s meeting of the International Society for Magnetic Resonance in Medicine (ISMRM) held in Cape Town, South Africa from May 9 to 14. He was recognized for his significant contributions to arterial spin labeling and the advancement of perfusion MRI.

The ISMRM is a multi-disciplinary nonprofit association that promotes innovation, development, and application of magnetic resonance techniques in medicine and biology worldwide.

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Peter Gumbsch has been honored with the highest award given to members of the American association TMS – The Minerals, Metals and Materials Society.

The director of the Fraunhofer Institute for Mechanics of Materials IWM in Freiburg and professor of materials mechanics at KIT was named a TMS Fellow on March 18, 2026, at the annual conference of the American TMS – The Minerals, Metals and Materials Society in San Diego. The appointment as a TMS Fellow is the highest award for TMS members and honors the life's work of leading figures in materials science. The honor recognizes Prof. Peter Gumbsch's outstanding scientific achievements and technical contributions to multiscale materials modeling and the understanding of fracture and deformation processes.

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The Fraunhofer Institute for Experimental Software Engineering IESE is one of the ten nationwide winners of the university competition in the Science Year 2026 – Medicine of the Future with its project "My Twin, My Rules – A Data Café on the Future of Health Data." From a total of 220 submissions, the best communication ideas from young researchers were honored, including the project by Jean Stadlbauer, data scientist in the Digital Health Engineering department at Fraunhofer IESE. The winning teams will each receive 10,000 euros to implement their projects by the end of 2026.

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High recognition for application-oriented AI research from East Westphalia-Lippe: The Fraunhofer Institute in Lemgo, together with the Diwo sculpture studio in Paderborn, has been awarded the Seifriz Prize 2026. The prize recognizes the successful collaboration between craftsmanship and science in the development of “StoneCrackMon.” The innovation was developed as part of the project “Artificial Intelligence and Digital Offensive for Crafts in North Rhine-Westphalia” (KIDiHa).

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The right choice of materials and a commitment to sustainability are enabling advances in baking technology that not only reduce the impact on the environment but also bring economic benefits to small craft businesses. A textile, PFAS-free, and reusable baking mat reduces waste, lowers energy consumption, and simplifies operational processes in areas that matter most to bakers every day. The team behind the BakeTex research project has been awarded this year's Seifriz Transfer Prize and has been invited to present the project at the special show "Innovation Wins" at the International Craft Fair in Munich from March 4 to 8, 2026.

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Dr. Andreas Erdmann, head of the Computational Lithography and Optics group at Fraunhofer IISB and SPIE (International Society for Optics and Photonics) Fellow since 2016, has been honored with the 2026 SPIE Frits Zernike Award for Microlithography. The award is considered the highest honor in microlithography.

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The project “KI4PED – AI-based optimization of pedestrian crossing times through smart traffic light systems” by Fraunhofer IOSB-INA in Lemgo has made it onto the international list of the International Research Centre on Artificial Intelligence (IRCAI) under the auspices of UNESCO. KI4PED was rated “Excellent” by the reviewers in the “IRCAI Top 100: Global AI for SDGs Index 2025” and is thus one of the 100 AI innovations worldwide that make a special contribution to sustainability and the 17 goals of the United Nations.

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