Adhesion Innovation Award
The FEICA/EURADH Award for Innovative Adhesion Science
The FEICA/EURADH Award for Innovative Adhesion Science, which takes place every two years, aims to stimulate the interactions between industrial and scientific activities in adhesion science.
Applications are invited from young researchers and scientists, working in adhesion science in Europe, who have published outstanding work. FEICA and EURADH (biannual European conference on adhesion and related phenomena) launched the first Adhesion Innovation Award (AIA 2018) at the 2017 FEICA European Adhesive & Sealant Conference and EXPO.
The biannual EURADH/FEICA Adhesion Innovation Award is a great opportunity for both EURADH and FEICA to foster ties between industrial and scientific activities and to raise awareness of the outstanding contribution our sector’s innovators make towards a circular economy. Each year, excellent entries from across Europe are submitted. More information is available via www.adhesionaward.org.
The 4th edition of the AIA took place during the 2025 FEICA Conference & EXPO in San Sebastian, Spain, and awarded the first prize to Adrià Roig Gibert, Ghent University, for his innovation on ‘Structural Reversible Adhesives: Towards High Adhesion and Enhanced Circularity’ (Universitat Rovira i Virgili, Tarragona).
The second prize went to Nidal Del Valle Raydan, Université de Pau et des Pays de l'Adour (UPPA), with ‘Innovative Keratin-Based Wood Adhesive for Sustainable Applications’ (University of Pau and the Adour Region, UPPA, Mont-de-Marsan, France).
Jan-Marten Sprenger, IFAM Bremen, was awarded the third prize for his project on ‘Anticipatory sustainability assessment framework for material development demonstrated on material selection for bio-based benzoxazine synthesis’.
A call for submissions will open in 2026, with the award ceremony taking place in 2027.
Past AIA winners:
AIA 2018 was won by Dr René Hensel for his paper on ‘Composite pillars with a tunable interface for adhesion to rough substrates’.
The second EURADH/FEICA Adhesion Innovation Award (AIA 2020) was won by Dr Elisa Arikan for her paper on ‘Structural adhesive bonding of polymers - Surface characteristics and adhesion mechanism’.
The third Award (AIA 2023*) was won by Mr Marvin Kaufmann for his publication on ‘How adhesives flow during joining’.
*The 2022 edition of the award was moved to 2023 due to the COVID-19 pandemic.