• The DMEA sparks Award recognizes outstanding theses on the digitalization of healthcare.
• Application period: 4 November 2025 to 31 January 2026
• Prize money totaling 7,000 euros
Students and graduates in the field of digital health can now apply for the DMEA sparks Award 2026 . Each year, the award recognizes the best theses that contribute to the digitalization of healthcare with innovative ideas and research results.
The competition is aimed at young talents from the fields of IT, medicine, health economics and related disciplines who focus on new technologies, concepts or applications in their bachelor's and master's theses.
Applications can now be submitted here on the DMEA website
The deadline for applications is January 31, 2026.
Prize money of up to 2,000 euros is up for grabs.
A jury of experts will then review all submitted theses and select the finalists in the bachelor's and master's thesis categories. The winners will be announced at DMEA on April 22, 2026.
Review of 2025
Around 60 students submitted their final theses for the DMEA sparks Award 2025. The graduates dealt with topics such as artificial intelligence in diagnostics, machine learning and open data for medical research and care. The interviews with the winners can be read in the DMEA news blog .
The winners of the DMEA sparks Award 2025. Image: Messe Berlin
About DMEA
DMEA is Europe's leading event for digital health, which gathers decision-makers from all areas of the healthcare sector, including IT specialists, doctors, hospital and nursing care executives as well as experts from politics, science and research.
In 2025, around 20,500 participants gathered at the Berlin Exhibition Grounds. There were 870 national and international exhibitors and more than 470 speakers.
The DMEA is organized by the Bundesverband Gesundheit-IT - bvitg eV (Federal Association for Health IT) and is hosted by Messe Berlin GmbH. It is organized in cooperation with the industry associations GMDS (German Society for Medical Informatics, Biometry and Epidemiology) eV, BVMI (Professional Association of Medical Informatics) eV and with the content-related participation of KH-IT (Federal Association of Hospital IT Managers) eV and CIO-UK (Chief Information Officers - University Hospitals).
Source & Image Credit: DMEA
