The prize is for the best paper at the IFAC World Congress of an author  under the age of 30 by August 1st, 2026. The candidate should be the first author and should also give the presentation at the Congress. The prize with a certificate will be awarded at the closing ceremony.

Nominations may be made by the supervisor or a colleague of the young author (no self-nomination) and should include a nomination form . The nomination form must contain a clear statement indicating that the nominee is younger than 30 by August 1st, 2026. In the form, type in “23rd IFAC World Congress YAA” in the field of Name of the Award, and the form should be submitted using the IFAC PaperPlaza conference manuscript management system. For the age criterion motivated exemptions can be taken into account under certain specific circumstances. Papers authored by members of the Selection Committee or the Awards Chair are not eligible.

The nomination phase will start on January 12th, 2026 and close on Feb. 28th, 2026. The IFAC Young Author Prize Selection Committee determines based on the gathered reviews and on their own reading of the paper. The winner is determined at the time of the Congress, based on both the written paper and the oral presentation that should be given by the nominee.

Young Author Prize Selection Committee is chaired by Carlos Canudas-de-Wit.

The prize is given for outstanding technical contributions at the IFAC Congress in the area of control applications. This includes, but is not limited to, case studies, design and implementation of control systems and optimization of operations in a process. The prize and a certificate are awarded at the closing ceremony of the IFAC World Congress.

Nominations may arise in two ways. One is from colleagues of the authors (no self-nominations). In this case, a nomination letter should be submitted using the Paperplaza conference manuscript management system. The letter should be in a PDF file indicating the title and authors of the paper and a short justification (no more than half a page). The other option for nomination is from reviewers (nominations via a checkbox in the review form in the IFAC PaperPlaza conference manuscript management system). Papers authored by members of the Selection Committee or the Awards Chair are not eligible. Deadline for nomination is Feb. 28th, 2026.

A preliminary selection process is performed by the relevant Technical Committees. By the time of the approval of the final Program of the Congress, each Technical Committee Chair submits to the Chair of the IFAC Application Paper Prize Selection Committee the set of papers which are considered suitable for this Prize. The Selection Committee determines a short list of finalists, and notifies the respective corresponding authors. The winner is determined at the time of the Congress, based on the written paper and the oral presentation.

Application Paper Prize Selection Committee is chaired by Lars Eriksson.

The prize is for the best paper presented in an interactive session of the IFAC World Congress. At the congress, the presentations will be given in two formats: lecture/oral sessions and interactive sessions. All papers undergo the same review process, and the presentation format does not reflect the rating of the reviews. It is at the discretion of the International Program Committee to choose which papers are presented in either oral or interactive sessions. The interactive presentation will take place during 2-hour session slots. The prize and a certificate are awarded at the closing ceremony of the IFAC World Congress.

The chair of the Interactive Paper Prize Selection Committee will be responsible for nominating papers for the prize based on the reviews collected for the papers to be presented in interactive sessions. Papers authored by members of the Selection Committee or the Awards Chair are not eligible. The Selection Committee determines a short list of finalists, and notifies the respective corresponding authors. The winner is determined at the time of the Congress, based on the written paper and the interactive presentation.

Interactive Paper Prize Selection Committee is chaired by Jacquelien Scherpen.

The details of D&I paper prize will be announced soon.