Dear Colleagues,

Prof. Silvia Coradeschi (d. Feb 5, 2014) was a founding trustee of RoboCup and an early visionary in the RoboCup initiative. She served as General Chair of RoboCup 1999 in Stockholm, Sweden, was a frequent competition participant, and was an exemplar of the RoboCup ideal of engaging in cutting-edge AI and Robotics research.

Prof. Gerhard K. Kraetzschmar (d. July 24, 2019) joined RoboCup since its beginning in 1997 and significantly contributed to the development of the RoboCup Federation (Trustee since 2004, Vice-President from 2008 to 2016). He was involved in the organization of many of the leagues, with major contributions to RoboCupJunior, RoboCup@Home, and RoboCup@Work. He was the General Chair of RoboCup 2016 in Leipzig, Germany.

To honor their extraordinary contributions to RoboCup and to honor their memories, the RoboCup Federation created “The Silvia Coradeschi RoboCup Award” in 2014 (https://www.robocup.org/silvia_coradeschi), for a young female RoboCup student or post-doctoral researcher, with distinguishing research and the “The Gerhard Kraetzschmar RoboCup Distinguished Service Award” in 2021 (https://www.robocup.org/gkk_award), to recognize the outstanding contributions of an individual for his/her exceptional leadership, service, and dedication that benefit RoboCup in any of its leagues.

We are now calling for candidates for the 2026 Awards. The award recipients, to be named at RoboCup 2026 will receive:

a certificate a US$1,000 honorarium Nominations for the “Silvia Coradeschi Award”: Eligible candidates for the “Silvia Coradeschi Award” are female graduate students and post-doctoral researchers who received their degree within the past 3 years and will register for RoboCup 2026. The two criteria are: Distinguishing research as evidenced by, for example, refereed public ations. RoboCup leadership, either within a team and/or in the broad RoboCup community. To nominate a female student or post-doctoral researcher for the “Silvia Coradeschi Award”, the individual's professor should fill out the nomination form (https://forms.gle/xe8VqF14FpaPgg1HA) by May 15, 2026. The submission should include: A letter of recommendation that addresses both criteria. An additional letter of recommendation from a RoboCup community member not affiliated with the nominee’s team is recommended (but not required) to support the nomination. Please upload the letters to the form by the professor recommending the can didate.

Nominations for the “Gerhard Kraetzschmar RoboCup Distinguished Service Award”: Eligible candidates for the “Gerhard Kraetzschmar RoboCup Distinguished Service Award” are RoboCup members with an outstanding record of service in one or more of the RoboCup Leagues, including as Technical and Organizing Committees, Executive Committee, and/or Board of Trustees. To nominate a RoboCup member for the “Gerhard Kraetzschmar RoboCup Distinguished Service Award”, a person nominating a candidate should fill out the nomination form (https://forms.gle/xe8VqF14FpaPgg1HA) by May 15, 2026. The nomination must include a letter of recommendation that addresses the individual’s impact on service and contributions to RoboCup, including diversity, quality, and length of the work done for RoboCup. One or two additional letter(s) of recommendation from RoboCup community members to support the nomination. Please upload the letters to the form by the person nominating the candidate.

Best regards Hiroyuki Okada -- Hiroyuki OKADA, Ph.D. Trustee of the RoboCup Federation Chair of the RoboCup Japanese Regional Committee Professor of Tokyo Information Design Professional University, Tokyo Japan