Recognizing software developers in the community:

Helmholtz Software Award

The Helmholtz Software Award emphasises the often underestimated contributions of software developers in the association.

The importance of scientific software development has so far not been sufficiently recognized in the research community. The Helmholtz Software Award aims to promote the development of professional and high-quality research software and to make the dedication of developers in the association visible.

The award focuses on the sustainable development and application of research software as well as cooperation between software developers. At the same time, the award is intended to help make research software usable for other areas of application.

The Helmholtz Software Award is a cooperation between HIDA, HIFIS, the Hirse_PS project and the Helmholtz Open Science Office.

Otmar Wiestler

Scientific software is an essential tool for modern research and delevolpment. It opens up fascinating in all domains of sciences. The Helmholtz Software Award is intended to honor outstanding achievements of software developers in the Helmholtz Association.

Otmar Wiestler

President of the Helmholtz Association

Award categories

The award consists of three prize categories that reflect the diversity and different character of the software projects.  

  • Best Scientific Software
    This prize is awarded for the innovative contribution and the scientific results achieved with the software.
  • 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.
  • 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.

Target group

The Helmholtz Software Award is granted to Helmholtz scientists, engineers and teams (including PhD students) developing outstanding software solutions.

More information on the application and the award can be found here.

Timeline

  • 27.08.2024 Publication of the call
  • 20.10.2024 Deadline for the nomination of a maximum of three candidates per center
  • 31.10.2024 Deadline for the application via the application platform
  • 2025 Presentation of the Helmholtz Software Award. The time and place of the award ceremony will be announced in good time.

If you have any questions or suggestions regarding the award, please contact us at open-science@helmholtz.de.

A cooperation between

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