We are happy to announce that Tanja Žlender (NIJZ), Lucija Brezočnik (FERI), Vili Podgorelec (FERI), and Maja Rupnik (MF, NIJZ) at the conference Power of Microbes in Industry and Environment 2023 received the award for the best poster on automatic identification of polluters using comparative analysis of the 16S rRNA gene. Many challenges that we face require the integration of various fields and combining professional knowledge, which is reflected in innovative solutions and further possibilities for interdisciplinary cooperation.