The vgbe Innovation Award has been presented by the vgbe RESEARCH FOUNDATION since 1981. It recognises groundbreaking ideas, innovative solutions and the work of young talent in research and development. The award is specifically aimed at ambitious young professionals at the start of their careers. This initiative is also driven by the growing shortage of skilled workers and demographic change: supporting young scientists and engineers is seen as a strategic investment in the future of the energy sector.
Innovation Awards
A special arrangement was made for 2026: due to the high standard of the submitted projects, the Board of Trustees of the vgbe RESEARCH FOUNDATION decided to honour a total of four winners. All four will receive the Innovation Award as well as prize money. The projects cover a range of technical challenges facing the energy sector – from high-temperature corrosion and combustion, through hydrogen and materials testing, to increasing the flexibility of biomass and waste-to-energy power stations.
Viktor Andersson already possesses strong academic qualifications. He holds a Master of Science in ‘Innovative and Sustainable Chemical Engineering’ from Chalmers University of Technology, followed by a PhD in Science specialising in chemistry from the University of Gothenburg. He is currently working as a postdoctoral researcher at Chalmers University of Technology in Gothenburg. Andersson is therefore already a qualified PhD holder and continues to conduct research at an academic level following the completion of his doctorate. The award recognises his work entitled ‘Real-time alkali speciation’, which falls under the ‘Future-Oriented’ category. In terms of content, Andersson’s research focuses on alkali metals and their chemical form in high-temperature processes. Sodium and potassium, for example, play a particularly important role in the combustion of biomass. Under the high temperatures found in thermal energy plants, such substances can trigger chemical reactions that may, amongst other things, contribute to high-temperature corrosion.
Elias Ehlmé also comes from the field of chemical engineering. He holds a Master of Science in Chemical Engineering from Chalmers University and is currently a PhD student at Chalmers University of Technology. His doctoral research focuses on thermal radiation. His award-winning thesis is entitled ‘Advanced radiative heat transfer models for combustion processes in thermal engineering systems’ and falls under the ‘Application-Oriented’ category. Put simply, the research concerns how heat is transferred in combustion processes and how this process can be represented as realistically as possible in computer simulations. In complex flames, different gases are present at very high temperatures, which can absorb and emit thermal radiation. Various gas-radiation models exist for simulating such processes. Ehlmé’s research offers recommendations on which models are suitable for specific complex flame simulations. The aim is to improve the selection of appropriate models so that technical combustion processes can be investigated and simulated more precisely.
Stephan Elsen-Humberg brings a different perspective to the group of award winners. He completed his Master of Science in Mechanical Engineering at RWTH Aachen University and now works as a materials engineer at RWE Power AG. He is being recognised for his work ‘Tensile testing in high-pressure gaseous hydrogen using the tubular specimen method’, which also falls into the ‘Future-Oriented’ category. The focus is on how metallic materials behave when exposed to gaseous hydrogen at high pressure. Elsen-Humberg’s approach instead utilises a special tubular specimen geometry, known as the ‘tubular specimen method’. This allows the test to be carried out using only a fraction of the amount of hydrogen required by the traditional autoclave method. This reduces not only the hydrogen requirement but also the costs associated with technical safety. The innovation therefore lies less in a completely new material than in an improved method for testing materials for hydrogen applications. Particularly in view of the expansion of the hydrogen economy, such testing methods are important for reliably qualifying materials whilst reducing the effort and costs involved in the investigations.
Johannes Lips has a particularly international and interdisciplinary academic background. He obtained a Bachelor of Science in Electromechanical Engineering from Ghent University in Belgium. He subsequently completed a European Master of Science in Nuclear Fusion and Engineering Physics at the University of Stuttgart in Germany and the University of Lorraine in France. He is currently a PhD candidate in the field of Energy Technology at the University of Stuttgart. His outstanding thesis is entitled ‘Assessing and improving the operational flexibility of grate-fired cogeneration power plants’ and has been recognised as ‘application-oriented’. It focuses on the question of how grate-fired combined heat and power plants can be operated more flexibly.
The four award winners represent different future-oriented topics
The four Innovation Award projects thus address very different technical problems. Viktor Andersson comes from the field of chemistry and is investigating alkali metals and their significance for high-temperature processes and corrosion. Elias Ehlmé is working on physical models for thermal radiation and combustion. Stephan Elsen-Humberg is working on a more efficient method for testing metallic materials under high-pressure hydrogen. Johannes Lips is investigating how biomass and waste-to-energy power stations can be operated more flexibly.
Safety & Health Award – Safety as part of everyday working life
The Safety & Health Award differs from the Innovation Award. It does not recognise the scientific work of an individual early-career researcher, but rather a specific safety project carried out by a team. In 2026, the award goes to EDP Gestão da Produção, S.A., or more specifically to the EDP FlexGen Safety Team, represented by Joana Godinho Kundel dos Santos.
The vgbe Safety & Health Award focuses on safety and health in the generation and storage of electricity and heat. Criteria for assessment include, amongst other things, exceptional commitment to safety and health compliance and prevention, proven excellence, the innovative nature of a project, and its transferability and scalability. The actual effectiveness of the measures at the respective site also plays a role. The first vgbe Safety & Health Award was presented in 2012 at the congress in Mannheim.
The 2026 award goes to the ‘PlayitSafe Card Deck’, also known as the ‘Safety Dialogue Deck’. Behind this lies a deliberately simple, physical and bilingual solution: a set of cards in Portuguese and Spanish that integrates safety discussions directly into normal work routines. The cards are used, for example, during toolbox talks, regular team meetings or safety rounds led by managers. Each card contains a brief prompt and an open-ended question. The aim is to encourage employees to discuss specific risks, near-misses, safety observations and safe behaviour.
The key idea is that the cards do not provide ready-made answers. Rather, they are designed to spark conversations. Safety awareness is thus not conveyed exclusively through formal training sessions, but is intended to become an integral part of day-to-day work. The peer-to-peer approach is particularly important here: employees are encouraged to talk to one another about safety risks and experiences and to learn from one another.
The project is therefore an interesting example of how an innovation does not necessarily have to be technologically complex. The safety team relies on a very accessible tool that can be easily integrated into existing work processes.
The award particularly highlights the card set’s ability to stimulate discussions about near-misses and safety observations, thereby embedding safety awareness in everyday life.
