AMA Innovation Award 2025: Jury nominates five teams
Three established and two young companies in the final
Berlin, March 25, 2025 – The AMA Association for Sensors and Measurement nominates five outstanding applications for the AMA Innovation Award 2025. Among them, two winners of the special 'Young Enterprise' award have already been determined: NanoStruct GmbH with its three-minute bacteria test based on SERS technology and Pelora GmbH with its highly precise WayveSpot positioning system.
Strong competition and innovative strength
This year, 27 research and development teams from Germany and abroad submitted their projects for the renowned AMA Innovation Award. The jury, consisting of experts from science and industry, nominated five teams, including three established companies and two start-ups. The final winners will be announced at the SENSOR+TEST 2025 in May and will receive prize money of 10,000 euros, which the jury can also split.
Twelve of the submitted applications came from young companies that have been on the market for no longer than five years, employ fewer than 50 people and generate annual sales of less than ten million euros. Two of these companies particularly impressed the jury:
- NanoStruct GmbH (Würzburg) developed a three-minute bacteria test with SERS (Surface-enhanced Raman Spectroscopy) technology, which uses nanotechnological sensors to identify pathogenic bacteria in food in minutes instead of days.
- Pelora GmbH (Erlangen): Their WayveSpot system enables highly precise location of Bluetooth devices by evaluating Bluetooth advertising packets from standard 4.0 and achieving a localization accuracy in the centimetre to lower decimetre range with a patented algorithm.
These two teams will receive a free trade fair appearance at SENSOR+TEST 2025 in Nuremberg as a special prize for young companies and will remain in the running for the AMA Innovation Award 2025.
The five nominees for the AMA Innovation Award 2025
(in alphabetical order):
Clamp-on ultrasonic transducers for high-temperature flow measurement
Endress+Hauser Flow, Reinach/Switzerland – team spokesperson: Beat Kissling
Development of non-invasive ultrasonic sensors for measuring the volume flow of liquid media in pipelines with temperatures of up to +550°C.
Three-minute bacteria test with SERS
NanoStruct GmbH, Würzburg – team spokesperson: Dr. Henriette Maaß
Revolutionizing food analysis by identifying pathogenic bacteria in minutes using sensors based on nanotechnology.
WayveSpot
Pelora GmbH, Erlangen – team spokesperson: Dr. Erik Sippel
Highly precise location of any Bluetooth device with an accuracy in the centimeter to lower decimeter range using a new type of hardware and patented algorithms.
Industrial acceleration sensor with edge AI processing
STMicroelectronics, Cornaredo/Italy – team spokesperson: Carlo Larghi
Digital acceleration sensor with embedded machine learning core for motion pattern classification for industrial IoT applications.
New temperature sensors for wide-band-gap power electronics
Yageo Nexensos GmbH, Kleinostheim – team spokesperson: Stefan Dietmann
High-performance temperature sensors with intrinsic isolation and improved response time for SiC power electronic modules.
Jury chairman emphasizes the high quality of the submissions
“This year's submissions presented us with a difficult decision. The range and depth of the innovations was impressive, and there were numerous exciting solutions that would have been worthy of an award,” says Professor Andreas Schütze, jury chairman from Saarland University. ”The five nominees exemplify the innovative strength of the industry, and you can read about many more exciting projects in the brochure with all the applications.”
Awards ceremony at the SENSOR+TEST 2025
The winners of the AMA Innovation Award 2025 will be announced on 6 May 2025 during the opening event of the SENSOR+TEST 2025 in Nuremberg.
Further information and an overview of all applications can be found at: https://www.ama-sensorik.de/fileadmin/2025_AMA_Innovationspreis_Broschuere.pdf
