Eppendorf Award for Young European Investigators

The Eppendorf Award for Young European Investigators was first established in 1995. It acknowledges outstanding contributions to biomedical research in Europe based on methods of molecular biology, including novel analytical concepts.

The Award is presented in partnership with the scientific journal Nature.

Prize money: 20,000 EUR

The application deadline for the Eppendorf Award for Young European Investigators 2021 has expired.
The winner will be announced at the end of June 2022.

In 2021, Eppendorf SE, the Hamburg life science company, presented its highly prestigious research prize for the 26th time. The independent Eppendorf Award Jury chaired by Prof. Reinhard Jahn selected Dr. Tanmay Bharat, Group Leader at Sir William Dunn School of Pathology, Oxford University, United Kingdom as the 2021 winner of the Eppendorf Award for Young European Investigators.

Tanmay Bharat, born 1985, receives the € 20.000 prize for his pioneering work on the structure and function of extracellular surface layers that surround and protect prokaryotic cells.

About the Award

Entry details & judging procedures

Who can apply for the award?
Young researchers not older than 35 years with an advanced degree who are performing biomedical research in Europe based on methods of molecular biology, including novel analytical concepts.

How to apply
Online applications for the Eppendorf Award for Young European Investigators are accepted from October 1 of each year onwards at www.eppendorf.com/award/application
Your application must include:

your personal data
your curriculum vitae
a title describing the subject of your research
an essay of max. 2,000 characters (incl. spaces) summarizing your research
a brief description of your major discovery
your publication list with PDF files of your published papers (min. 3 - max. 5)

Your application and all submitted documents must be in English.

Judging procedures
Eppendorf has no influence on deciding who receives the award.

The prize is awarded by an independent committee composed of six renowned experts under the chairmanship of Prof. Reinhard Jahn (Director Emeritus at the Max Planck Institute for Biophysical Chemistry, Göttingen, Germany), from the fields of:

Cellular Neurobiology (Reinhard Jahn, Jury Chair: Max Planck Institute for Biophysical Chemistry, Göttingen, Germany)
Genetics and Physiology (Sadaf Farooqi: Wellcome-MRC Institute of Metabolic Science, University of Cambridge, UK)
Developmental Biology (Madeline Lancaster: MRC Laboratory of Molecular Biology, University of Cambridge, UK)
Genomics and Systems Biology (Ben Lehner: Center for Genomic Regulation, Barcelona, Spain
Genetics and Cell Biology (Maria Leptin: Director EMBO, Heidelberg, Germany)
Cell Biology (Laura Machesky: Cancer Research UK Beatson Institute, Glasgow, UK)

The papers submitted will be evaluated with respect to the following five selection criteria:

1. Independent scientific work

2. Creativity (independent of instructions from head of institute)

3. Successful practical application of research approach

4. Significance of research results for the field of medicine

5. Achievement of candidate in relation to his/her age

The main focus is on investigating the molecular biological mechanisms of the human organism and then translating this research into practical findings. The long-term goal is the diagnosis and therapy of those diseases which have yet to be treated successfully.

2021 Award Winner

2021 Award Winner: Dr. Tanmay Bharat

Appointment at time of winning the Award:

Group Leader at Sir William Dunn School of Pathology,
Oxford University, United Kingdom

Tanmay Bharat, born 1985, receives the € 20,000 prize for his pioneering work on the structure and function of extracellular surface layers that surround and protect prokaryotic cells.

The Jury: „In particular, his work elucidated how filamentous phages (symbiotic viruses released from the bacteria) protect pathogenic bacteria from the attack of certain antibiotics. His work has far-reaching general implication and also opens the door for the development of new antibiotics that are urgently needed.”

Tanmay Bharat: “I am humbled and honoured to receive the prestigious Eppendorf Award. This prize is a direct result of contributions by my talented colleagues and collaborators, and recognises the importance of the research conducted in my laboratory. We study how pathogenic bacteria form multicellular communities called biofilms, with a particular emphasis on cell surface molecules bacteria employ to evade antibiotic treatment within biofilms. With an ever-increasing threat of antimicrobial resistance, our fundamental research will aid in the development of strategies for therapeutic intervention against bacterial infections.”

The official prize ceremony virtually took place on June 24, 2021. The laudatio honoring Tanmay Bharat’s achievements was held by Award Jury Chairman Prof. Reinhard Jahn, Director Emeritus at the Max Planck Institute for Biophysical Chemistry, Göttingen, Germany.

Watch the recording of the virtual Award Ceremony here.

Downloads & Links

Past Award Winners

2020 Award Winner
Prof. Randall Platt
Assistant Professor of Biological Engineering, Department of Biosystems Science and Engineering, ETH Zurich, Switzerland

2019 Award Winner
Dr. Georg Winter
Principal Investigator at the CeMM Research Center for Molecular Medicine of the Austrian Academy of Sciences, Vienna, Austria

2018 Award Winner
Prof. Andrea Ablasser
Assistant Professor at the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology, Lausanne, Switzerland

2017 Award Winner
Tom Baden, PD PhD
Senior Lecturer in Neuroscience at the School of Lice Sciences, University of Sussex, Brighton, United Kingdom

2016 Award Winner
Prof. Adrian Liston
Group leader at VIB Translational Immunology Lab, University of Leuven, Belgium

2015 Award Winner
Dr. Thomas Wollert
Research Group Leader at the Max Planck Institute of Biochemistry in Martinsried, Germany

2014 Award Winner
Madeline Lancaster
Marie Curie Postdoctoral Research Fellow, Laboratory of Juergen Knoblich, Institute of Molecular Biotechnology of the Austrian Academy of Sciences (IMBA), Vienna, Austria

2013 Award Winner
Benjamin Lehner
EMBL-CRG Systems Biology Unit Centre for Genomic Regulation Barcelona, Spain

2012 Award Winner
Dr. Elizabeth Murchison
Wellcome Trust Sanger Institute, Cambridge, United Kingdom

2011 Award Winner
Assistant Professor Suzan Rooijakkers, PhD
University Medical Center Utrecht, Department of Medical Microbiology, Utrecht, The Netherlands

2009 Award Winner
Dr. Óscar Fernández-Capetillo
Head, Genomic Instability Group, Spanish National Cancer Center (CNIO), Madrid, Spain.

2008 Award Winner
Dr. Simon Boulton
Cancer Research UK, London Research Institute, UK

2007 Award Winner
Dr. Mónica Bettencourt-Dias
Instituto Gulbenkian de Ciência, Oeiras, Portugal

2006 Award Winner
Dr. Luca Scorrano
Dulbecco-Telethon Institute, Venetian Institute of Molecular Medicine, Padova, Italy

2005 Award Winner
Dr. Thomas Helleday
Arrhenius Laboratory Department of Genetics, Microbiology and Toxicology, Stockholm University

2004 Award Winner
Prof. Dr. Patrick Cramer
Gene Center, University of Munich, Germany

2003 Award Winner
Prof. Dr. Silvia Arber
Biozentrum, University of Basel, Friedrich-Miescher-Institute Basel, Switzerland

2002 Award Winner
Dr. Thomas Tuschl
Göttingen, Germany

2001 Award Winner
Dr. Andreas Mayer
Friedrich-Miescher Laboratory of the Max-Planck-Gesellschaft, Tübingen, Germany

2000 Award Winner
Dr. Dario Alessi
MRC Protein Phosphorylation Unit, University of Dundee, Scotland

1999 Award Winner
Dr. Jean Pieters
Basel Institute for Immunology, Switzerland

1998 Award Winner
Professor Dr. Michael Wegner
Center of Molecular Neurobiology, University Hospital (UKE), Hamburg, Germany

1997 Award Winner
Professor Dr. Helena Edlund
Department of Microbiology, University of Umea, Sweden

1996 Award Winner
Professor Dr. Ueli Suter
Institute of Cell Biology, Swiss Federal Institute of Technology, ETH Zürich

1995 Award Winner
Professor Dr. Stephen P. Jackson
Wellcome/CRC Institute, University of Cambridge, England