The Una Europa PhD Impact Award, which took place for the second year, was given to the four winners at the end of September. Doctoral researchers and PhD students of all Una Europa partner universities were invited to send their applications for the award in one of these four focus areas: Sustainability, One Health, Future Materials & Technologies and Data Science & Artificial Intelligence. The aim of the award is to showcase doctoral research projects which can make a difference in the fields of science, economy, art, culture, politics, and society.

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A jury per focus area picked our the best application from almost 200 submissions. These are the winners and their research projects:

• Eva Karin Rohlfer (University of Helsinki): Carbon and the Coast - What the Baltic Seafloor Reveals. Discover how the Baltic seafloor stores and releases carbon—and why it matters for climate.

• Abdelkarim El-Hajjami (Université Paris 1 Panthéon-Sorbonne): From Scarce to Shareable - Generating Synthetic Data for Better Software. Why does the scarcity of real requirements data hold back AI, and how can synthetic datasets provide a way forward?

• Angelica Giovagnoli (University of Bologna): Smart materials, greener planet - cellulose can power next generation packaging. Fully cellulose-based packaging for a greener and high-performance future.

• Marina Lovichi-Acquaviva (University Paris 1 Panthéon Sorbonne): Protecting animals through the environment - a one health legal approach. Rethinking animal law through One Health: protecting animals, nature, and humanity’s shared future together.

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All winners will be featured on the Inspiration Stage of the Berlin Science Week and introduce their projects in short presentation at Berlin's Museum of Natural History on 1 November 2025 from 11:00 to 12:30 CET.