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Best Dissertation Award

The Informatics Europe Best Dissertation Award (BDA) is granted annually for an excellent PhD dissertation in Informatics, endorsed by one of the members of Informatics Europe. The Award aims to recognise and encourage emerging researchers while promoting excellence in research within the Informatics Europe community and beyond.

 [Read the 2025 Award Results Press Release] 

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Each year the Award Committee will select the winner based on the following criteria:

  • Innovative research and methodology
  • Impact and quality of results
  • Societal relevance
  • Clarity and quality of exposition

Should more than one dissertation reach an equivalent top score, the one with the highest societal impact score will be selected.

Sponsored by Springer, the Award includes a EUR 3,000 prize, an Award plaque, and an exclusive invitation to publish the dissertation in a dedicated Springer series.

The Award Committee reserves the right to award two candidates as winners and consequently split the monetary prize between them. To expand the reach of excellent dissertations, should the winning dissertation be already published with an ISBN or under copyright protection, the Award Committee will extend the publishing invitation to the best unpublished dissertation submitted.

The Official 2025 Award Ceremony took place during the annual European Informatics Leaders Summit (ECSS 2025). The Award winner received financial support to attend the Summit. Noteworthy runners-up and distinguished finalists were also recognised and invited to join the Award ceremony.

We would like to express our gratitude to the 2025 Award Committee:

  • Premek Brada, University of West Bohemia, Czech Republic (Co-Chair)
  • Dimka Karastoyanova, University of Groningen, the Netherlands (Co-Chair)
  • Marco Aiello, University of Stuttgart, Germany
  • Gert Jervan, Tallinn University of Technology, Estonia
  • Ernestina Menasalvas, Technical University of Madrid, Spain

The Award Committee, partially renewed every year, is composed of a subset of the Board of Directors of Informatics Europe. In case a PhD dissertation is submitted from an institution that the Award Committee member currently belongs to, the Committee member from that institution will not participate in the discussion and the voting of that particular submission.

Submission for the 2026 Award will be open in February 2026. 

Nominations should be submitted by academics from Informatics Europe member institutions. Federated members can submit only one dissertation for their entire set of members. Full submission requirements will be announced in February 2026: stay tuned!

Frequently Asked Questions

How many Award nominations can our university submit?

Each university department can submit only one nomination to the Award. We only consider nominations endorsed by our member institutes.

Our university is not a member of Informatics Europe, or we have multiple outstanding candidates. What are our options?

Only PhDs nominated by Informatics Europe member institutions are eligible. Not a member yet? Join us and be part of Europe’s leading Informatics community!

If your department belongs to one of our member National Informatics Associations (full list here), you may request an endorsement from the association. However, each member association may endorse only one candidate.

Our department belongs to a federated member of Informatics Europe. Can we submit more than one Award nomination?

A federated member represents a group of up to five small academic or research institutions holding a single vote and is entitled to only one nomination for the Award.

My dissertation has already been published. Am I still eligible for the Award nomination?

Yes, your dissertation remains eligible for the Award. If selected as the winner, you will receive the EUR 3,000 prize or share it if there are multiple winners. You will also be invited to publish the dissertation in a dedicated Springer Series if it has not been published with an ISBN or under copyright protection. Otherwise, the invitation to publish in a dedicated Springer series will be granted to the best unpublished dissertation submitted, as determined by the Award Committee, without an additional monetary prize.

Further Inquires

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