Dedication
The Nemetschek Innovation Award is dedicated to ground-breaking innovations in Artificial Intelligence for the Built World throughout the entire lifecycle of built facilities. It is funded by the Nemetschek Innovationsstiftung (NIS) (Nemetschek Innovation Foundation) and aims to recognize application-oriented innovations. The competition procedure is managed and organized by the Georg Nemetschek Institute at Technical University of Munich (TUM GNI). The submissions are assessed by a Special Award Panel consisting of international referees who are appointed by the President of TUM.
Candidates are invited to present software applications in pre-product stage for the analysis, creation, construction, operation, renovation and management of buildings and civil infrastructures. Topics that are particularly eligible for consideration are primarily machine learning, intelligent interfaces, context-sensitive uncertainty analysis, knowledge-enhanced decision making, and AI-supported process automation.
The criteria used to evaluate the submitted solutions are: Expected impact of the solution on the AECO sector; Originality and innovative strength; Maturity of the presented software solution (being still in the pre-competitive stage).
Awards
The first-place prize is €100,000, the second-place prize is €60,000, and the third-place prize is €40,000. The first place is only awarded for epoch-making innovations and is not necessarily granted in each round of the Awards.
Eligibility
Undergraduate students, graduate students and doctoral students from universities worldwide can take part in the competition. Participants must be registered at a university or comparable institution at the time of application (intention to submit deadline). The completion of a degree, doctorate or PhD after admission to the competition does not affect the right to participate.
It is encouraged that teams of participants apply – there is no lower or upper limit on the team size. The team members have to share the prize money among themselves – TUM GNI will not judge on the share of individuals in the presented solution.
Procedure and Timeline
- Intention to Submit until 31/08/2025
- Preselection by eligibility committee until 30/09/2025 (formal eligibility)
- Submission of final work until 31/01/2026
- Review by Special Award Panel (international Jury)
- identification of shortlist: 5-8 teams
- Final meeting of Award Panel: approx. 15/03/2026
- Presentations by the shortlisted teams
- Selection of Awardees
- Public Award Ceremony at GNI Symposium: 19/05/2026
- Announcement of winners and shortlisted teams
Intention to Submit
The “Declaration of Intention to Submit” must be submitted until 31/08/2025 24:00 CEST in electronic format via email to contact.gni@tum.de. Delayed submissions will not be considered any further.
The declaration must comprise the following documents (in PDF format):
- Cover letter, signed by all team members
- Contact information, including official email addresses of each team member at their university
- Proof of registration at the university, e.g. a copy of the registration certificate, for each team member
- CVs of all team members
- Maximum 5-page sketch describing the planned submission
The description should highlight the innovative character of the planned submission. It should clearly specify its relation to Artificial Intelligence and to applications for the Built World (architecture, engineering, construction, operation).
The description can contain text and figures. In can also include references to supplementary material, such as links to publications, videos or code repositories. However, they will not necessarily be taken into account for deciding on eligibility.
The “Declaration of Intention to Submit” serves as a basis for the TUM GNI committee to decide on the eligibility of the respective team to take part in the competition. By submitting the documents, the participants accept all terms and conditions for the award procedure.
The teams will be informed until 30/09/2025 if they are eligible for the competition.
Eligibility committee
The eligibility committee composed of four members of TUM-GNI and NIS will decide on admission to the competition as part of a pre-selection process. At least three of the four votes are required for a participant or team to be admitted to the competition. Teams are informed by email about their eligibility, and, if applicable, invited to the competition.
Submission of Final Competition Entry
The Final Competition Entry is due 31/01/2026 at 24:00 CEST. Delayed submissions will not be considered any further.
Detailed instructions regarding the required submission documents will be given to the teams, that have successfully passed the eligibility assessment.
Final decision
The Special Award Panel will draw up a shortlist of five to eight teams from the work received by the deadline, which will take part in the final decision meeting. The invited teams must present their submitted work at the final decision in person. A maximum of three persons from each team may present at the final decision meeting. Their travel expenses will be re-imbursed by TUM GNI according to the rules and regulations of the State of Bavaria (details to follow).
Award Ceremony
The Award Ceremony will be part of the TUM GNI Symposium to be held from 18/05/2026 until 20/05/2026 in Munich, Germany. The Award Winners are required to take part in person. Travel expenses will be re-imbursed by TUM GNI (details to follow).
The respective prize money will be transferred to the award-winning participants by the TUM GNI after the award ceremony.
Legal stipulations
Neither NIS nor TUM-GNI will demand ownership or other rights to the work of any participant in the competition. These remain with the respective participant.
With the submission of the “Declaration of intent to submit”, the participants grant TUM GNI the right to use the submitted material for the purposes of the competition and archive it for documentation purposes.
With the submission of the Final Competition Entry, the participants grant TUM and NIS the right to use the submitted material for the purposes of the competition and archive it for documentation purposes. They also grant the right to be named as participants and/or winners of the Nemetschek Innovation Award, along with a short description of their competition entry, in public media as well as the websites and social media channels of TUM GNI and NIS.
Legal recourse is excluded.