The Pezcoller Foundation-EACR Translational Cancer Researcher Award celebrates academic excellence and achievements in the field of translational cancer research, which is defined as a fundamental research discovery that has the potential for future clinical development for the benefit of cancer patients.
The award is presented annually to a researcher of excellence with no more than 15 years post-doctoral experience (or equivalent degree), with at least the last five years spent working in Europe and presently employed in a European institution.
The 2026 winner will give the prestigious Pezcoller Foundation – EACR Translational Cancer Researcher Award Lecture at the EACR 2026 Congress ‘Innovative Cancer Science' in Budapest, Hungary, 8 - 11 June 2026.
The award winner will receive a €10,000 honorarium. They will also be invited to give a lecture at the Pezcoller Foundation in Trento, Italy, at a date to be agreed.
The Pezcoller Foundation is a non-profit institution, whose goal is to promote scientific research against diseases which afflict mankind, specifically the fight against cancer. The Founder, Prof. Alessio Pezcoller, was Chief Surgeon at Santa Chiara Hospital in Trento, Italy. The Foundation was established in 1980.
The Foundation depends primarily on the substantial sum of money bequeathed by Professor Alessio Pezcoller, and by significant contributions from its sponsors: the Cassa di Risparmio di Trento e Rovereto Foundation, the Province of Trento, the Administrative Councils of Trento and of Rovereto and other occasional private donations.
Due to its ever increasing recognition within the international oncological community, the Foundation collaborates with some of the most important cancer institutions: the American Association for Cancer Research (AACR) and the European Association for Cancer Research (EACR). The Pezcoller Awards are officially recognised during the international conferences of the two above mentioned associations.
2025: Ido Amit (Weizmann Institute of Science, Israel)
2024: Elisa Oricchio (Swiss Institute of Experimental Cancer Research and EPFL, Switzerland)
2023: Nicola Aceto (ETH Zurich, Switzerland)
2022: Nicholas Turner (ICR, UK)
2021: Andrea Ablasser (EPFL, Switzerland)
This award was previously organised as the Pezcoller Foundation – EACR Cancer Researcher Award. Previous winners of this award:
2020: Nitzan Rosenfeld (University of Cambridge, UK and Inivata Ltd)
2018: Jan Korbel (EMBL Heidelberg, Germany)
2016: Yardena Samuels (MICC, Israel)
2014: Eduard Batlle (IRB Barcelona, Spain)
2012: Eric So (King's College London, UK)