Icelandic Student Innovation Fund

The President of Iceland’s Innovation Award is awarded is granted annually to students who have carried out outstanding work in solving a project supported by the Student Innovation Fund.

The award was first granted at the beginning of 1996 and has since been awarded every year at a formal ceremony at Bessastaðir. All students who submit a final report by the advertised deadline are eligible for the award.

Each year, the board of the Student Innovation Fund selects about 10–15 projects completed during the year as outstanding projects. From these, 5–6 projects are chosen as exemplary projects and receive a nomination for the President of Iceland’s Innovation Award. The board of the Student Innovation Fund bases its evaluation of the projects on the assessment of the fund’s board of experts, which are five:

Award winning project 2025

Valdimar Sveinsson, a medical student at the University of Iceland, received the President’s Innovation Award for the project Bioinformatic Analysis of the Cellular Cold Response. The project was supervised by Kimberley Anderson, Director of the Laboratory, and Hans Tómas Björnsson, Professor at the Faculty of Medicine, University of Iceland.

This year’s prize is the LAVA Vase, a hand-blown glass piece made from recycled material by People Reykjavik.

Five other projects received special recognition in 2025:

• Fataframleiðsla framtíðar
  Carried out by Íris Lind Magnúsdóttir, a pharmacology student at the University of Iceland.
  Instructors: designer Valdís Steinarsdóttir, with Már Máson and Vivien Nagy from Minamo ehf.

• Þarahrat
  Carried out by Sólrún Arna Arnarsdóttir, MA student in Sustainable Cities at the Norman Foster Institute in London and Universidad Autónoma de Madrid, and Ísafold Kristín Halldórsdóttir, chemistry student at the University of Iceland.
  Instructor: Jan Eric Jessen from Algalíf.

• Eins og í sögu
  Carried out by Berglind Erna Tryggvadóttir and Þórunn Rakel Gylfadóttir, writing students at the University of Iceland.
  Instructor: Rúnar Helgi Vignisson, Professor of Writing, University of Iceland.

• One man's trash is another man's treasure
  Carried out by Sigrún Emelía Karlsdóttir, biotechnology student at the University of Akureyri, and Liam F. O. M. Adams O’Malley, agricultural sciences student at the Agricultural University of Iceland.
  Instructor: Hreinn Óskarsson from Land and Forest.

• Íslandssaga skynfæra: Sjálfsbókmenntir á Ísland
  Carried out by Ragnhildur Björt Björnsdóttir, BA student in history at the University of Iceland.
  Instructor: Sigurður Gylfi Magnússon, Professor of Cultural History, University of Iceland.

The President of Iceland, Halla Tómasdóttir, presented the awards.