Special Honours

Each year at Congress, ERS bestows a number of prestigious honours upon selected individuals based on their achievements and continued dedication to the field of respiratory medicine.

Calls open

ERS Scientifically Developing Countries Mid-Career Gold Medal Award

ERS Scientifically Developing Countries Mid-Career Gold Medal honours researchers from scientifically developing countries who have an excellent track record, significant impact of their on the local population and the potential for further outstanding developments in all areas of respiratory field.

Note: This award is on offer biennially. It will be awarded for the first time in 2025.

How to apply or nominate:

Click on the below link to complete your online application or nomination form. Please refer to the ERS Scientific Awards Guidance 2025 before applying or nominating a candidate to verify your/their eligibility for the ERS Scientifically Developing Countries Mid-Career Gold Medal Award.

ERS Lifetime Achievement Awards

ERS Lifetime Achievement Awards are intended to honour highly regarded senior scientists who have made significant contributions to the respiratory field.

The following Assembly members can apply or be nominated for the Lifetime Achievement Awards 2025:

3 – Basic and translational sciences
4 – Sleep Disordered Breathing
8 – Thoracic Surgery and Transplantation
11 – Thoracic Oncology
12 – Interstitial Lung Diseases

How to apply or nominate:

ERS Early Career Member Award

The Early Career Member Award (ECM award) is intended to honour a promising early-career member of ERS based on potential for future scientific contribution as well as past and current engagement in the ERS.

How to apply or nominate:

Click on the below link to complete your online application or nomination form. Please refer to the ERS Early-Career Award Guidance 2025 before applying or nominating a candidate to verify your/their eligibility for the ECM Award.

Awards

View past award recipients

Calls closed

ERS Scientifically Developing Countries Lifetime Achievement Award

ERS Scientifically Developing Countries Lifetime Achievement Award is intended to honour highly regarded senior scientists from scientifically developing countries who have made significant impact with their activity on the local/national and/or international population in the respiratory field.

Note: This award is on offer biennially. The next opportunity to apply for this award will be during the 2026 call.

ERS Cournand Lecturer Award

The Cournand Lecture is reserved for young investigators. A special Congress session will be dedicated to this lecture and a slot will be reserved for the awardee. The Award commemorates a distinguished French scientist who worked for much of his life in the United States. He was awarded the Nobel Prize in medicine and physiology in 1956 for his pioneering work on the in vivo investigation of the circulation.

How to apply or nominate

Click on the below link to complete your application or nomination form online. Please refer to the ERS Scientific Awards Guidance 2024 before applying or nominating a candidate to verify your/their eligibility for the Cournand Lecture award.

ERS Scientific Awards Guidance 2024

ERS Educational Award

The Educational Award is an annual lifetime achievement award and is presented by ERS to honour a European clinician, scientist, allied respiratory health professional, or individual in any other profession, who has made a contribution of extraordinary magnitude to education in respiratory medicine at a European or international level.

How to nominate

Nominations and applications for this award are currently closed.

ERS Yernault Lecturer Award

This Award is intended to honour an active member of ERS who has made an outstanding contribution to education in respiratory medicine or the allied professions. A special Congress session will be dedicated to this lecture and a slot will be reserved for the awardee. The lecture will focus on either an educational topic given by an acknowledged expert or a topic of choice given by an individual who has made a major contribution to education.

How to nominate

Nominations and applications for this award are currently closed.

Calls closed

ERS Presidential Award

The Presidential Award is presented by ERS to recognise an outstanding contribution to the strengthening of respiratory medicine worldwide. The recipient is selected by the current ERS President and ratified by the Executive Committee.

ERS Congress Chair Award

The Congress Chair Award is presented by ERS to recognise an outstanding contribution to the strengthening of respiratory medicine worldwide. The recipient is selected by the appointed Congress Chairs each year and ratified by the Executive Committee.

ELF Award

Each year the European Lung Foundation (ELF) presents its annual award during the ERS Congress. The ELF Award recognises people making an impact on respiratory public health.

ERS Teaching Awards

The Teaching Awards recognise ERS’s most dedicated officers; those who contribute to ERS educational content development (e-learning and publications) and events (courses, training programmes, seminars, the ERS Congress and other conferences).

Candidates are selected based on their educational input to the society within the financial year and are assessed according to a scoring system.

ERS Sadoul Lecture Award

The Sadoul Lecture is intended to honour senior scientists with a world-wide reputation. This Award commemorates a French scientist, Paul Sadoul, founder of the SEPCR and long-time editor of the “Bulletin Européen de Physiopathologie Respiratoire,” predecessor of the European Respiratory Journal. A special Congress session will be dedicated to the Sadoul Lecture and a slot will be reserved for the awardee.

How to apply or nominate

Complete your application or nomination form online.

Note: This lecture is awarded every 3 years. It will next be awarded in 2026. Please read the guidance provided.

ERS Scientific Awards Guidance 2024