Helmholtz Software Award 2026

Research software is an indispensable tool in modern science and offers great potential for reuse in research projects and technology transfer. The Helmholtz Software Award aims to highlight the importance of research software at the Helmholtz Association and to recognize the achievements of software developers.

The award is presented jointly by HIFIS - Helmholtz Federated IT Services, the Helmholtz Open Science Office, the Joint Lab HiRSE: Helmholtz Information - Research Software Engineering, and the Helmholtz Information & Data Science Academy (HIDA).

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, EUR 5,000)

• Chemotion - an Electronic Lab Notebook for chemistry and related sciences
• Helmholtz-PI: Nicole Jung (KIT)

Sustainability Prize (EUR 3,000)

• ASPECT - The Advanced Solver for Planetary Evolution, Convection, and Tectonics
• Helmholtz-PI: Rene Gassmöller (GEOMAR) und Anne Glerum (GFZ)

Newcomer Prize (EUR 2,000)

• TrixiParticles - Particle-based multiphysics framework implemented in Julia
• Helmholtz-PI: Sven Berger (HEREON)

We extend our heartfelt congratulations to the award winners on their outstanding achievements and are delighted by the wide range of high-quality software developments at the Helmholtz Centers – across all research areas.

The formal award ceremony will take place on 4 November 2026 as part of the Helmholtz Codes! Workshop at HZDR.