The Europlanet Medals
Submit a Nomination
The call for nominations for the Europlanet Medals 2026 has ended on 8 May 2026.
Europlanet Medal Winners 2026
Read the press release on the announcement of the 2026 Europlanet Career Medals.
About the Europlanet Medals
The Europlanet Medals, launched in 2025, honour outstanding contributions to scientific excellence, community building, and outreach from individuals at three different stages of their scientific careers, covering the subjects addressed by the Europlanet Science Congress (EPSC). Each Medal comes with a plaque and a registration waiver for the EPSC of the same year, because the recipient is expected to give a medal lecture at EPSC.
Eligible Scientific Fields
The fields eligible for a Europlanet Medal are:
- Terrestrial Planets
- Outer Planet Systems
- Missions, Instrumentation, Techniques, Modelling
- Small Bodies (comets, KBOs, rings, asteroids, meteorites, dust)
- Exoplanets, Origins of Planetary Systems and Astrobiology
Eligible Scientific Age
One Europlanet Medal each is awarded in the categories Early-Career, Mid-Career and Lifetime Achievement. The categories are based on the scientific age of a researcher at time of submission, which is calculated from the year of the last degree in scientific education (MSc, PhD) without counting the time being on leave (parental [+ 1 year/child] / health [variable]) or time working primarily outside science. The Europlanet Early-Career Medal will be awarded up to a scientific age of seven years. The Mid-Career Medal spans a scientific age greater than seven years and up to 22 years. Individuals with a scientific age beyond 22 years are eligible for the Europlanet Lifetime Achievement Medal.
| Europlanet Medal | Scientific age in years |
| Early-Career | x ≤ 7 |
| Mid-Career | 7< x ≤ 22 |
| Lifetime Achievement | x > 22 |
In Memoriam of Paolo Farinella
The Europlanet Mid-Career Medal honours the memory and the outstanding figure of Paolo Farinella (1953-2000), an extraordinary scientist and person. The previously awarded Paolo Farinella Prize (2011-2024) had been established in recognition of significant contributions in the fields of interest of Paolo, which spanned from planetary sciences to space geodesy, fundamental physics, science popularisation, security in space, weapon control and disarmament. Nominations of candidates with a record of interdisciplinary and international collaboration will be specially appreciated, following Farinella’s ability in fostering such important features of research.
Further Information
The Award Committee is composed of one representative from each career stage and one member from the former Paolo Farinella Prize Committee. Two Europlanet members, one from the Executive Board and the Chair of the EPSC Scientific Organising Committee (SOC), are leading the Committee to support the review process and act as arbitrators to prevent bias and favouritism.
The Award Committee reserves the right to request a nomination to be reviewed by an external if no expertise is available.
The Europlanet Executive Board will review and validate the shortlist of proposed awardees prepared by the Award Committee to ensure a fair and unbiased process.
The winner of the awards will be selected by the end of June and will be announced on the Europlanet and the EPSC website.
Excluded from being nominated, writing nominations or support letters are Award Committee members, and Europlanet Executive Board Members, including ex-officio members (EPSC Chair and Vice Chair).
The Award Committee will consider all the nominations, but it can also reconsider nominations from previous years.
Previous awardees cannot be nominated for the same medal again.
