During its annual meeting (occasionally embedded within the “BMT Dreiländertagung”), the SSBE can award two scientific awards: (a) the "Research Award" for a doctoral thesis or an equivalent body of research and (b) the "Student Award" for a Master or Bachelor thesis performed in a university or engineering school. The awards consist of a certificate and a cash prize of CHF 5’000 for the SSBE Research Award and CHF 2’000 for the Student Award.

Awards are given to individuals or research groups for outstanding research in biomedical engineering. The work must be documented in written form and worthy of public presentation at the national and international levels. Previously published and unpublished work is equally eligible.

The tendered work must have been formally submitted (and in the case of academic dissertations, defended and accepted) according to the rules of the Institution at which the work was performed.

The tendered work must have been registered within the timeframe of 1 July to 30 June of the Award Year. Bodies of research recorded before this timeframe, and which have not been previously submitted and considered for the Awards, may also be accepted for Award consideration at the discretion of the SSBE Board.

Candidates or candidate groups can be nominated by a third person or apply themselves. Both nominations and applications must be accompanied by (at least) one letter of recommendation that highlights the quality, originality, and importance of the respective work. In the case of nominations, the letter of recommendation may but does not need to be written by the nominating person. Letters of recommendation cannot be written by candidates.

The candidate (or the candidate’s group) must be a member of the SSBE or have applied for membership. If this is not the case, the submission must include a letter of recommendation by an SSBE member.

In case of multiple authorship of the nominated work the candidate (group) must be the primary research contributor(s). Written agreement is required from all coauthors who are not nominated (or do not apply, respectively).

The call for nominations and applications is published via the internet site of the SSBE and/or by similar means of dissemination.

Submissions must be received by the chairman of the awards committee by June 1st unless announced otherwise. Submissions should include a cover letter, naming the work proposed, the candidate(s), and the type of award considered. The work itself must also be enclosed. Electronic submissions are highly encouraged (as .pdf). Hardcopy submissions must be made in duplicate, mailed to the award committee chairman.

Submissions are evaluated by an ad-hoc Awards Committee led by the committee chair, who is a member of the board. The chair appoints the committee members on the basis of the subjects of the submitted works. The committee must include at least one further member of the SSBE.

The Awards Committee presents its evaluation and provisional ranking to the board of the SSBE. The board invites finalists in each category to present their research as a short talk at the Annual meeting. The Board then selects the winners in closed balloting.

Winners will be announced at the conclusion of the Annual meeting of the society.