On 27 September in Kiel, Germany, the 37th edition of the EU Contest for Young Scientists (EUCYS) closed with the announcement of its winners. Over one week, around 140 young scientists (aged 14 to 20) from almost 40 countries presented their scientific projects to an international jury, the public and their peers.
The projects winning the first prize of € 7000 each are:
- Tommaso Vaninetti, Abdoellah El Makkaoui and Frida Tirari from Italy for their project ‘PlantLeaf – a system to detect and analyse plants’ reactions to stress’
- Kazimierz Jakub Chomicz from Poland for his project ‘Chicken McNugget problem in embedding dimension four’
- Nikoloz Tkebuchava and Lizi Chachua from Georgia for their project ‘In Silico Analysis of Conservation and Structure of FAM163A and Its Potential Role in Cancer’
- Gurnoor Kaur from Canada for her project ‘Eigenpulse: Eliminating Demographic Bias in Pulse Oximetry and Remote Photoplethysmography from First Principles’
The second and third prizes (€ 5 000 and € 3 500 each, respectively) went to projects from Austria, Bulgaria, Canada, Germany, Norway, Switzerland, Turkey and Ukraine. The Special Jury Prize of €2 500 went to Ireland. The winning projects share a total of €64 500 in prize money.
Ekaterina Zaharieva, Commissioner for Startups, Research and Innovation, said:
“Congratulations to this year’s EUCYS winners! Every great scientific breakthrough begins with the courage to go beyond the status quo. Your curiosity, creativity and determination are exactly what Europe needs to tackle global challenges and build a sustainable future. Keep pushing boundaries – this is only the beginning of your scientific journey”
Discover all the winning projects
From EUCYS to real-world impact
Over its 37 editions, EUCYS has launched the careers of some of Europe’s most successful scientists and entrepreneurs. Alumni include Patrick Collison, co-founder of the global payments platform Stripe; Shane Curran, whose prize-winning encryption research led him to found Evervault; and Greg Tarr, who turned his award-winning AI project into Inferex, a fast-growing AI infrastructure start-up.
Others have channelled that same spirit into work with a more immediate human impact. Tommaso Caligari represented Italy at EUCYS with an AI-based device for the early detection of Parkinson’s disease, inspired by his own grandfather’s illness, and chose to make it available to everyone free of charge. In 2023, he was officially honoured by the President of the Italian Republic for his contribution to science and society.
Background
EUCYS is the European Commission’s contest for young science students, open to 14- to 20-year-olds who have won first prize at their national science competition. Established in 1989, it gives participants the opportunity to compete with peers from across Europe and beyond, and to get guidance from some of the continent’s most prominent scientists.
Since 2026, EUCYS is part of the wider Science Comes to Town initiative and supports the objectives of the ERA Policy Agenda by bringing science closer to citizens. Science Comes to Town is a Horizon Europe-funded action under the WIDERA Work Programme, supporting groups of cities to co-organise a year-long programme of science-engagement activities, in the spirit of the European Capital of Culture or European Green Capital initiatives.
This year-long initiative brings research and innovation closer to citizens across three host cities in 2026: Kiel (Germany), Brest (France) and Split (Croatia). With over 1,000 activities and more than 70 partners, Science Comes to Town 2026 is connecting scientific institutions, innovation ecosystems and the public throughout the year.
EUCYS 2026 followed on from EU TalentOn, which crowned its own winners in Brest earlier this month, before Science Comes to Town 2026 draws to a close with a joint Closing Event and Ceremony on 14–16 December.
Winning projects were assessed by a jury of 20 internationally renowned scientists, innovators, researchers and industry experts, chaired by Hans Langeveld, the founder of Biomass Research. The awards were presented by jury President Karin Prien, Federal Minister for Education, Family Affairs, Senior Citizens, Women and Youth of Germany, Silke Launert, Parliamentary State Secretary at the Federal Ministry of Research of Germany and Dorit Stenke, Minister for General and Vocational Education, Science, Research and Culture for the German state of Schleswig-Holstein.
Science Comes to Town will return for a second edition in 2027, hosted by four new cities: Aarhus (Denmark), Genoa (Italy), Kaunas (Lithuania) and Oeiras (Portugal). EUCYS 2027 will take place in Genoa
More information
EUCYS 2026 website
Science Comes to Town website
Press contact:
EC Spokesperson for Research, Science and Innovation
