EIROforum members awarded Special Donated Prizes at EUCYS 2026 in Kiel, giving outstanding young talents the chance to visit leading European science facilities.
The 37th European Union Contest for Young Scientists (EUCYS) concluded in Kiel, Germany, on 27 September 2026, bringing together around 140 young scientists aged 14 to 20 from almost 40 countries. During the contest, participants presented projects to an international jury, the public and their peers. EIROforum member organisations again contributed Special Donated Prizes, linking selected students with some of Europe’s leading scientific organisations.
This year’s EIROforum Special Donated Prize awardees are:
ESO – European Southern Observatory: Vasileios Petropoulos (Greece), for “Design and Simulation of a Cathodeless Gridded ECR Thruster Using Asymmetric Pulsed Neutralization”.
CERN – European Laboratory for Particle Physics: Bram Willem Johannes Leisink and Myrthe Meike Sas (The Netherlands), for “What Really Happens in the Hallways: A Multidisciplinary Analysis of Pedestrian Flows in a New Secondary School Building”.
EUROfusion: Tim Kammel (Germany), for “What Makes an Hourglass Tick?: An Analysis of Hourglass Accuracy, Sand Flow Mechanics and Flow Rate Optimisation”.
ESRF – European Synchrotron Radiation Facility: Yair Golan and Sagi Appelbaum (Israel), for “Development and Characterization of Chlorine-Rechargeable Silica-Urea Coatings for Bacterial Eradication and Biofilm Prevention”.
EMBL – European Molecular Biology Laboratory: Antonina Lena Jarecka (Poland), for “Design of siRNA Targeting Conserved Regions of the ToBRFV Genome (Tomato brown rugose fruit virus)”.
ILL – Institut Laue-Langevin: Nicola Trucco (Italy), for “From the Impact of Radon to Prediction and Forecasting: The Different Shades of Environmental Radioactivity”.
European XFEL: Jogaile Grinceviciute (Lithuania), for “Targeting Cancer with Precision: Regioisomer Design for Selective Carbonic Anhydrase IX Binding”.
ESA – European Space Agency: István Csaba Vigh (Hungary), for “Cosmic Distance Measurement Using Peculiar Supernovae”.
ESS – European Spallation Source ERIC: Swara Mandar Pandharkar (Finland), for “Exploration of hydrogel’s swelling properties for biomedical applications”.
EUCYS is an initiative of the European Commission. Participants are first-prize winners from national science competitions, and the contest gives them the opportunity to meet peers, present their work and receive guidance from experienced scientists. The 2026 edition took place in Kiel from 22 to 27 September as part of the Science Comes to Town initiative.
The Special Donated Prizes complement the contest’s core awards by offering experiences linked to the awarding organisations, typically including study visits or other opportunities to engage with their scientific environments. Through these prizes, EIROforum members support young researchers in exploring science and seeing first-hand how large European research organisations work.