Research awards

The €5,000 prize was established with the aim of giving young academics the opportunity to gain international experience and get to know interesting research institutions for a postdoctoral position.

The prize is awarded to medical and scientific doctoral students who have produced excellent work with a focus on virology as part of their doctorate at a research institution in the German-speaking world. The work must have already been published or accepted for publication. At the time of application, the disputation should be outstanding and the doctoral procedure should not yet be formally completed. Membership of the Society of Virology is expected.

Documents to be submitted for nomination or self-application (one PDF document, max. 10 MB in German or English):

• Cover letter with a brief outline of the doctoral project
• Curriculum vitae in tabular form
• List of publications
• Copy(s) of the most important publication(s)
• Letter of recommendation from a university lecturer (ideally from the doctoral supervisor)

Application deadline: November 01 of the current year

Submission by e-mail to: geschaeftsstelle@g-f-v.org

We will send you a confirmation of receipt within three working days.

The prize is endowed with € 1,500 and will be awarded at the GfV's spring conference. Prerequisites for the application are that the disputation has already been successfully completed at the time of application and that the results of the doctorate have been published in a peer-reviewed publication. Membership of the Society of Virology is expected.

Documents to be submitted for the self-application (one PDF document, max. 10 MB in German or English):

• Curriculum vitae in tabular form
• Publication list
• Copy(s) of the peer-reviewed publication(s)
• Letter of recommendation

Application deadline: November 01 of the current year

Submission by e-mail to: geschaeftsstelle@g-f-v.org

We will send you a confirmation of receipt within three working days.

The prize is intended to recognize scientists who have previously worked particularly successfully as postdoctoral researchers. Each of the three specialist societies prepares a nomination with the names of three young scientists. The final decision is made by the Robert Koch Foundation. The award winners are thus, in their view, the best and most original researchers in their age group who have been able to publish their work in the leading interdisciplinary journals.

All members of the GfV are entitled to nominate candidates. The candidate proposal (by e-mail) with a short letter of recommendation, curriculum vitae and selected publications should be submitted electronically to the GfV office by March 31 of the current year: geschaeftsstelle@g-f-v.org

The Frosch Prize, endowed with €5,000, is aimed at members of the Society of Virology who have not yet reached the age of 40 (childcare periods are taken into account in accordance with DFG regulations) and do not hold a lifetime professorship. One or more outstanding publications from the last few years (ideally as first or last author or corresponding author) are the basis for evaluation.

University lecturers and department heads who are members of the Society of Virology are eligible to nominate candidates.

Documents to be submitted for the nomination (one PDF document, max. 10 MB in German or English):

• Nomination proposal incl. letter of justification (maximum 2 pages)
• Curriculum vitae in tabular form
• List of publications
• List of the five most important publications

Application deadline: November 01 of the current year

Submission by e-mail to: geschaeftsstelle@g-f-v.org

We will send you a confirmation of receipt within three working days.

Award Type: Personal Award
Prize Money: 50.000 Euro
Granting Body: Chica and Heinz Schaller Foundation
Other Benefits or Honors: The award involves an on-site lecture during the 35th Annual Meeting of the Society of Virology in Heidelberg (March 17.-20., 2026).
Research Field: Virology

Eligibility: Candidates should have obtained their PhD, MD or equivalent at least 15 years ago (at the nomination deadline). Candidates must be nominated by fellow scientists (no self-application). The prize is international. Nominations may be put forward by all members of the GfV, the Board of Directors, and the Scientific Advisory Council of the CHS.
Applications must be in English and submitted to the address given below.

Requirements: The following information is required to submit a nomination as email-attachment in one PDF (max. size 10 MB):

• Name and contact details of the scientist making the nomination
• Name and contact details of the candidate
• A brief one-page biography of the candidate including major awards received by the candidate
• A list of 10 most significant publications of the candidate
• Short research summary of the candidate describing scientific achievements of relevance to the award (two pages max)
• Two supporting reference letters by colleagues familiar with the candidate's work
• A complete CV of the candidate, including a full publication list (please do not submit reprints)

Application period: September 01 - November 01, 2025
Submit your application electronically to the following address:
geschaeftsstelle@g-f-v.org

Contact Details
Name: GfV - Society of Virology e.V.
Homepage: https://www.g-f-v.org/
Email: geschaeftsstelle@g-f-v.org

A confirmation of receipt will be sent within three business days.

The medal is endowed with €5,000 and is awarded at the GfV Annual Conference by decision of the Executive Board and Advisory Board.

Gertrude and Werner Henle, who were born in Germany and emigrated to the USA in the 1930s to escape persecution by the Nazi regime, are among the most important virologists of the 20th century. In addition to their outstanding scientific successes, they were intensively involved in Funding young virologists, especially from Germany. After the Second World War, they opened their renowned laboratory at the Children's Hospital of Philadelphia to young German scientists, making a significant contribution to international networking and the reconstruction of German virology. This commitment made them not only scientific role models, but also important founders of new structures in the specialist community.

With the Gertrude and Werner Henle Medal of the GfV, we would like to honor the legacy of the Henles and recognize individuals who have further developed the field of virology through exceptional commitment. In particular, we would like to pay tribute to those who have made outstanding scientific and structural contributions to virology and Society of Virology . The Funding of young scientists is an important criterion here.

The awarding of the Loeffler-Frosch Frosch at the Spring Conference also includes the Frosch Lecture by the award winner.

All members of the Society of Virology are eligible for nomination.

Application deadline: November 01 of the current year

Submit the name proposal by e-mail to: geschaeftsstelle@g-f-v.org

We will send you a confirmation of receipt within three working days.

Prizes are awarded to original scientific publications in which new methods have been successfully developed or existing methods have been used in an innovative way - either to minimize risks in virological research or to reduce or avoid animal testing in accordance with the 3R principle (Replace, Reduce, Refine). The prizes are endowed with €1,000 each and are intended to increase the visibility of innovative, ethically responsible research approaches.

Categories and evaluation criteria of the respective publication award:

1. biosafety, biosecurity, risk mitigation

Development and/or use of technologies that enable experimental work with reduced risk. These include

• Use of surrogate viruses (e.g. reporter viruses, reassortants)
• Non-infectious virus models (e.g. virus-like-particles (VLPs), replication-deficient viruses)
• Cell-based models for the investigation of adaptation processes with reduced risk (e.g. to prevent the development of resistance to antiviral host factors)
• Establishment of plasmid-based, non-infectious replicon systems for viruses
• Innovative inactivation methods
• Complex modeling of viral infections in silico
• Systematic studies on the infectivity of viruses in cell culture, on surfaces or in animals.

2. application of the 3R principle

Addressing complex biological questions in virology with special consideration of the 3R principle. This includes

• Replacement (substitute methods): Development and application of animal-free methods such as ex vivo or in vitro systems as well as organoids in virological research; use of in silico models to predict the course of infections; replacement of specific animal experiments with, for example, in vitro tests of immunological reactions (e.g. antibody responses in cell cultures)
• Reduction: Conducting animal experiments with a smaller number of animals, e.g. through the use of valid and reproducible statistical models
• Refinement: Measures to improve animal welfare, for example through optimized termination criteria or strategies to alleviate pain and suffering, without compromising the gain in scientific knowledge and at the same time ensuring the quality of research.

Prerequisites:

This publication prize is aimed at both the first author and the laboratory in which the publication(s) was/are produced. When submitting their application, applicants should describe the knowledge gained from their publication(s) as well as how and to what extent innovative methods for minimizing risk or implementing the 3R principles were used in their work.

• Application from first and/or last author or corresponding author
• Confirmation from the applicants that the other co-authors agree
• Prize money will be shared between the applicants.
• Membership of all applicants in the Society of Virology

Documents to be submitted (one PDF document, max. 10 MB in German or English):

• 1-page summary of the publication(s) with focus on innovative methods for risk minimization or replacement method promotion and the knowledge gained.
• The original paper(s) accepted for publication (no reviews, max. 2 years after publication)
• Short curriculum vitae in tabular form for all applicants

Application deadline: November 01 of the current year

Submission by e-mail to: geschaeftsstelle@g-f-v.org

We will send you a confirmation of receipt within three working days.

1st prize money

The prize money is € 2,500.

2. research work

The basis of the evaluation should be one or more publications that have been published or accepted for publication in the last two years. The aim is to award a prize for an outstanding scientific achievement that demonstrates significant new findings in the field of clinical virology and is related to public health issues.

3. participant

The prize can be awarded to individual scientists or a group of researchers.

4. application

Members of the DVV as well as university lecturers and heads of department who are members of the GfV are entitled to nominate candidates. The executive boards of DVV and GfV have formed a selection committee with two representatives each from DVV and GfV. The work to be awarded is selected by the selection committee in consultation with the presidents of the two specialist societies. The prize will be awarded at the annual conference of the German Association for the Control of Viral Diseases.