The board of the European Artificial Intelligence Association, EurAI, invites nominations for the EurAI Distinguished Service Award 2026.

The EurAI Distinguished Service Award is presented annually to individuals who have contributed exceptionally to the European AI community. The award recognises their excellent service and dedication towards advancing the field of AI.

The past recipients of the award are: Erik Sandewall-2012 (Sweden), Luigia Carlucci Aiello-2014 (Italy), Ramon López de Màntaras-2016 (Spain), Wolfgang Bibel-2018 (Germany), Alan Bundy-2020 (Scotland), Luc Steels-2022 (Spain), Mike Wooldridge (UK) and Barry O'Sullivan (Ireland) in 2023, Tony Cohn-2024 (UK), and Carles Sierra (Spain) and Frank Van Harmelen (The Netherlands) in 2025.

EurAI fellows, as well as EurAI member societies, can nominate. Recipients must be members of one of the EurAI societies.

The nomination process entails the following steps:

• Nominations should contain a 1-2 page justification explaining why the candidate is considered appropriate for the award. We recommend specifying the nominee's service activities to the AI Community (and providing fewer details about their academic curriculum).
• Nominations of candidates should also include a proposed citation to appear on the award certificate. Typically, this citation begins with the text "For contributions to the field of artificial intelligence through sustained service ..." followed by a phrase of, ideally, not more than twenty carefully chosen words that reflect this nominee's demonstrated service to the European AI community.
• Identify the EurAI society of which the nominee is a member.

Nominations should be sent in a single PDF by March 31st, 2026, to Amanda Figueras at executive-secretary@eurai.org.

To see the Distinguished Service Awardees, click here.