Awards and Prizes

The Boehringer-Ingelheim / FENS Research Award is sponsored by Boehringer Ingelheim and is announced by FENS. The award is given in recognition of outstanding and innovative scientific work from all areas of neuroscience research. The award is presented during the FENS Forum, where the prize winner gives a special lecture.

The 2022 awardees are Tom Baden of The University of Sussex, UK with the lecture: Flexible inferences in the prefrontal hippocampal circuitry and Tatjana Tchumatchenko of University of Mainz Medical Center, University of Bonn Medical Center, Germany with the lecture: Heterosynaptic plasticity emerging from molecular interactions in dendrites. The lectures will take place on Monday 11 July at 13:30-14:15.

Sponsored by the Chica and Heinz Schaller Foundation, this award recognises significant achievements by an individual in translational science, and in particular, those where fundamental and conceptual understanding of the nervous system have been brought to support clinically relevant progress.

The Eric Kandel Young Neuroscientists Prize, awarded by the Hertie Foundation and FENS, recognises the work of outstanding early career scientists in the field of neuroscience. The prize is named after American Nobel Prize winner Prof. Eric Kandel, and is awarded every two years at the Forum with a special lecture.

The winner of the 2021 prize is Julijana Gjorgijeva from Germany, and her lecture entitled Organization and computation in neural circuits during development will take place on Sunday 10 July at 13:30-14:15.

The FENS EJN Award is given in recognition of outstanding scientific work in all areas of neuroscience. The award is a personal prize of £10,000, sponsored by Wiley (publisher of the European Journal of Neuroscience). The prize winner gives a lecture at the FENS Forum.

Professor Michal Schwartz (Israel) has been awarded with the FENS EJN Award 2022 for her outstanding career in the area of neuroimmunology.  Professor Schwartz will be giving the FENS EJN Award Lecture at the FENS Forum 2022 and will write a review for publication in the European Journal of Neuroscience (EJN).

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The FENS EJN Young Investigator Prize is sponsored by Wiley (publisher of the European Journal of Neuroscience). It is awarded to early career researchers in recognition of their outstanding scientific contributions to any area of neuroscience. The award is presented at the FENS Forum, where the awardees give a lecture.

The 2022 winners are Prof. Mackenzie Mathis of  EPFL, Switzerland (Measuring and modeling the sensorimotor system with machine learning), Dr. Nicolas Renier of The Paris Brain Institute, France (Mapping neuronal and vascular networks in transparent brains), Dr. Giacomo Valle of The ETH, Switzerland (Somatosensory neuroprostheses: Connect the brain to bionic limbs) and Dr. Sara Mederos-Crespo of The Sainsbury Wellcome Centre for Neural Circuits and Behaviour, UK (Uncovering how inhibitory brain circuits rise behaviour). Their lectures will take place on Saturday 9 July at 13:30-15:00.

The Peter Seeburg Integrative Neuroscience Prize, endowed by the Schaller-Nikolich Foundation, honours original and groundbreaking achievements in neuroscience. The prize, named after the German neuroscientist Peter H. Seeburg, a pioneer in molecular neurobiology, was founded to recognise outstanding advances in the understanding of executive brain functions and cognitive processes. The award is presented at the SfN annual meeting in odd years and at the FENS Forum in even years. The award ceremony will take place on Sunday 10 July at 17:15-17:30.

With the ALBA-FKNE Diversity Prize, the ALBA Network and the FENS-Kavli Scholars wish to highlight a scientist or group that has made outstanding contributions to promoting equality and diversity in brain sciences, including but not limited to advocacy, mentorship or the creation of diversity-promoting initiatives. Every year, this prize is awarded at the FENS Forum and the FENS Regional Meeting.

Come celebrate the ALBA-FKNE Diversity Prize 2022 Winner. The name of the winner will be announced during the Ceremony.

With this Diversity prize, the ALBA Network and the FENS-Kavli Network of Excellence wish to highlight a scientist that has made outstanding contributions to promoting equality and diversity in brain sciences. The promotion of equality and diversity — e.g. by gender, race, sexual orientation, class, or culture— in research depends role models that catalyse a full integration of all scientists across academic levels.

More information: www.alba.network/awards

This award recognises research achievements of outstanding quality by an active scientist working at the frontiers of brain research, at any career stage PhD or MD onwards, from countries underrepresented among neuroscience publications and conferences.. The awardee for 2021 is Seung-Hee Lee from South Korea and the awardee for 2022 is Maria Elene Avale from Argentina. The lectures will take place on Wednesday 13 July at 11:30-12:30.

Initiated by the FENS-Kavli Scholars (FKNE), the FKNE Mentoring Prize honours a scientist with demonstrated leadership in fostering the careers of neuroscientists.
The recipient of the FKNE Mentoring Prize 2022 will be announced at the FENS Forum, on 9 July, 1:15 pm CEST.

The FENS-Kavli Network of Excellence awards the FKNE PhD Thesis Prize to an early career researcher for his/her outstanding PhD thesis in any domain of neuroscience.
The winner of the prize will be announced at the FENS Forum, on 9 July, 1:15 pm CEST.

ERA-NET NEURON awards the Excellent Paper in Neuroscience Award (EPNA), targeted at early-career scientists who have published first author research articles in international peer reviewed journals. Every two years, the EPNA awardee is invited to the FENS Forum for a special lecture.

The IBRO-Kemali International Prize for Outstanding Contributions in Neuroscience is awarded by the IBRO Dargut and Milena Kemali Foundation to an early career scientist who has made outstanding contributions to basic or clinical neuroscience. The prize winner is invited to give a featured lecture at the FENS Forum.

The awardee for 2022 is Sergiu Pasca from Stanford, USA and the lecture From stem cells to brain assembloids: Constructing and deconstructing the human nervous system will take place on Sunday 12 July at 13:30 – 14:15.

The 2022 IBB World Championship will be held virtually, in conjunction with the 2022
Federation of European Neuroscience Societies (FENS) Forum in July, and in collaboration
with the Paris Brain Institute. The winner will be announced on Saturday 9 July at 16:45-
17:00.

The Brain Prize is awarded by the Lundbeck Foundation to one or more scientists who have distinguished themselves by an outstanding contribution to neuroscience and who are still active in research. The winners are invited to give one or more lectures at the FENS Forum.

The 2021 Brain Prize winners are Lars Edvinsson of Sweden, Peter Goadsby of UK and USA, Michael Moskowitz of USA and Jes Olesen of Denmark. Their lectures will take place Sunday 10 July at 13:30-15:00.