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This year, the two Information & Data Science platforms Helmholtz Federated IT Services (HIFIS) and Helmholtz Information and Data Science Academy (HIDA), together with the Helmholtz Open Science Office and the Joint Lab Helmholtz Information - Research Software Engineering (HiRSE), have once again launched the call for the Helmholtz Software Award.
Within the Helmholtz Association, numerous software projects are being developed that make a substantial contribution to excellent research results. By awarding this prize, we want to highlight the importance of research software for Helmholtz and recognize the outstanding achievements of developers.
The award is given in three categories: Best Scientific Software, Sustainability, and Newcomer, and comes with a total prize fund of 10,000 EUR. The prize money is provided by HIDA from the Impulse and Networking Fund and is divided among the three winning teams.
This year, 39 applications from 17 centres met the eligibility criteria. Each submission was evaluated by two international expert reviewers against five criteria. Based on these evaluations, a panel of representatives from the participating platforms selected the winners:
Best Scientific Software (Main Prize, 5,000 EUR)
- Chemotion - an Electronic Lab Notebook for chemistry and related sciences
- Helmholtz-PI: Nicole Jung (KIT)
Sustainability Prize (3,000 EUR)
- ASPECT - The Advanced Solver for Planetary Evolution, Convection, and Tectonics
- Helmholtz-PI: Rene Gassmöller (GEOMAR) and Anne Glerum (GFZ)
Newcomer Prize (2,000 EUR)
- TrixiParticles - Particle-based multiphysics framework implemented in Julia
- Helmholtz-PI: Sven Berger (HEREON)
We heartily congratulate the winners on their outstanding achievements and are delighted by the large number of high-quality software developments in the Helmholtz centres – across all research areas.
The formal award ceremony will take place on 4 November 2026 as part of the Helmholtz Codes! Workshop at HZDR.