Professor Wallhäußer Innovation Award 2026

The 2026 Professor Wallhäußer Innovation Award was presented during this year’s PharmaCongress & PharmaTechnica 2026 at the end of March. The prestigious award, worth €5,000, is presented annually and recognises projects or technical innovations aimed at improving product quality and efficiency, in the areas of sustainability, carbon neutrality and resource conservation, or the integration of artificial intelligence (AI). With this award, Concept Heidelberg has been honouring the memory of Prof. Dr Karl Heinz Wallhäußer since 1987, who played a decisive role in shaping the development of pharmaceutical quality assurance.

A total of 23 projects were submitted for the 2026 award, from which a 13-member expert jury selected three finalists. First place went to AstraZeneca for the project “Automated Reading of Agar Plates for Environmental Monitoring with AI”. The jury particularly commended the successful combination of technological innovation and process simplification. Second place was jointly awarded to Bayer / Berlin-Chemie / Merck Healthcare for their project “MADDOX: AI-Based Assistance Software to Increase Production Efficiency in a GMP-Regulated Environment”, whilst third place was awarded to Spore.Bio for their project “TMSI (Transformer-based Multimodal Spectral Imaging)”.

PharmaCongress, together with the PharmaTechnica Expo featuring 120 international exhibitors, is regarded as one of the most important European forums for pharmaceutical technology and GMP compliance. Every year, specialists and executives from industry, regulatory bodies and academia come together to discuss current challenges and innovations in the pharmaceutical and biopharmaceutical industries across eight parallel conferences and the expo – this year attracting around 1,500 conference participants and expo visitors per day.

The presentation of the Professor Wallhäußer Innovation Award underscores the central role of PharmaCongress & PharmaTechnica Expo as a catalyst for innovation in the industry. In 2026, it was once again evident just how crucial technological advances and interdisciplinary collaboration are for the future of GMP-compliant production.

Contact:
CONCEPT HEIDELBERG GmbH
www.concept-heidelberg.de
www.gmp-navigator.com