Helmholtz Software Award

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).

If you have any questions or suggestions regarding the award, please contact us via 

open-science@helmholtz.de

Helmholtz Software Award 2026

Also in 2026, the Helmholtz Software Award will be granted to Helmholtz scientists, engineers and teams (including PhD students) developing outstanding software solutions.

Software applications and scientific communities are very diverse, so a single award cannot cover the entire variety. To ensure that this potential is fully exploited, different aspects of research software development are recognized and the prize is awarded in three categories:

1. Best Scientific Software: This prize is awarded for the innovative contribution and the scientific results achieved with the software.
2. Sustainability: This prize is awarded for software that is sustainable in the sense of software engineering according to the FAIR principles and for extensive support and participation of the scientific community.
3. Newcomer: This prize is awarded for young software solutions with great potential and a visible growth rate in application. It can be of particular interest to doctoral students or junior research groups.

Timeline

Criteria

The award winners are selected based on an evaluation by an international panel of experts and, in a second step, by a review board of experts from all Helmholtz research fields, the Helmholtz Open Science Office and the Helmholtz Information & Data Science Incubator. The selection-criteria are described here. 

Winners of the Helmholtz Software Award 2024

1. Scientific Originality Prize (Main Award, EUR 5.000):
   CP2K (Quantum Chemistry and Solid State Physics)
   https://helmholtz.software/software/cp2k
   Representative: Thomas Kühne (HZDR)
2. Sustainability Prize (3.000 EUR):
   FastSurfer (Human Brain MRI Analysis)
   https://helmholtz.software/software/fastsurfer
   Representative: Martin Reuter (DZNE)
3. Newcomer Prize (EUR 2.000):
   MemBrain v2 (Cryo-ET Membranes Analysis)
   https://helmholtz.software/software/membrain-v2
   Representative: Lorenz Lamm (Helmholtz Munich)

Winners of the Helmholtz Software Award 2023

1. Scientific Originality Prize (Main Award, EUR 5.000):
   CellRank (dynamics from multi-view single-cell data)
   https://helmholtz.software/software/cellrank
   Representative: Philipp Weiler (HMGU)
2. Sustainability Prize (3.000 EUR):
   ESMValTool (Earth System Model Evaluation Tool)
   https://helmholtz.software/software/earth-system-model-evaluation-tool-esmvaltool
   Representative: Birgit Hassler (DLR)
3. Newcomer Prize (EUR 2.000):
   openCARP (Cardiac Electrophysiology Simulator)
   https://helmholtz.software/software/opencarp
   Representative: Axel Löwe (KIT)