The Vietsch Foundation’s Medal of Honour
The Vietsch Foundation was created through the last will and testament of the late Willem Karel Vietsch (1952-2014), Secretary General of TERENA for over 15 years.
GÉANT collaborates with the Vietsch Foundation with regards to both the Innovation Programme (where strong proposals that are outside the scope of the Innovation Programme can be shared with the Foundation for consideration) and the Community Award (to avoid overlap with the Medal of Honour).
About the Vietsch Foundation
The mission of the Vietsch Foundation is to promote research and development of advanced Internet technology for scientific research and higher education.
The Vietsch Foundation fulfils its goals in two ways:
- It funds specific research and development projects that demonstrate potential value to progress European and global research and education networking.
- Each year it awards a medal of honour to people who contributed to the development of a service, technology or approach that will be of lasting value to the research and education networking community and its users.
Medal of Honour
The Vietsch Foundation awards a Medal of Honour on an annual basis to honour people whose initiatives led to a lasting organisational set-up or a service that is of great value to the research and education community.
Eligible are demonstrable, sustainable achievements in the set-up of a new organisation or service that help accelerating innovation in support of science research and higher education. The Medal can be awarded to the innovators as well as to those who have built on that innovation and made it sustainable. In case of proven collaboration, the Medal can be assigned also to different individuals involved in the process.
To nominate someone please send an e-mail explaining the reasons for your submission to nominations@vietsch-foundation.org.
The winner is announced at TNC, GÉANT's flagship conference. .2025 Winner
Cathrin Stöver, Chief Communications Officer, GÉANT
The recipient of the 2025 Medal of Honour of the Vietsch Foundation is Cathrin Stöver, Chief Communications Officer of GÉANT. The medal was presented to Cathrin on 10 June 2025, during an award ceremony at the TNC opening plenary of TNC25 in Brighton, UK.
The medal is awarded annually to people who have made a contribution of lasting value to the research and development of advanced Internet technology aimed to support science, research and higher education.
The board of trustees of the Vietsch Foundation chose Cathrin Stöver out of a large group of nominees, including several ones from previous years. The board recognised Cathrin’s successful long-term achievements and were particularly impressed by her contributions in connecting NRENs in Latin America and Africa as well as in strengthening and focusing the European community in her role as CCO at GÉANT, particularly vis-a-vis the European Commission where she succeeded in bringing EC-NREN relations to a higher level. The trustees also valued Cathrin Stöver’s role in the GÉANT CONNECT magazine and her championing of GÉANT’s yearly Women in STEM campaign.
