For the fifth time in a row, the Netherlands Heart Journal (NHJ), the official journal of Netherlands Society of Cardiology (NVVC), will together with Astra-Zeneca support the competition for the best two articles published in the year 2010. In 2006, it was thought appropriate to install a special publication prize in order to stimulate the submission of original articles to NHJ. We choose two articles per year, one more basically oriented, and one with a mainly clinical focus.The publication prize carries the name of one of the fathers of Dutch cardiology, Prof. Dr. Dirk Durrer (1918–1984, head of the Department of Cardiology in the ‘Wilhelmina Gasthuis, Amsterdam’) who performed pioneering work in the field of electrical activation of the heart in the 1960s.From a total of more than 30 original articles published in NHJ in 2010, we selected as best basic article: “The first reported generation of human induced pluripotent stem cells (iPS cells) and iPS cell-derived cardiomyocytes in the Netherlands” by Freund C, Davis RP, Gkatzis K, Ward-van Oostwaard D, Mummery CL (Neth Heart J 8:51–4, 2010). This article was cited by the New England Journal of Medicine. The best clinical article was entitled: “Cardiac PET-CT: advanced hybrid imaging for the detection of coronary artery disease” by Knaapen P, de Haan S, Hoekstra OS, Halbmeijer R, Appelman YE, Groothuis JGJ, Comans E, Meijerink MR, Lammertsma AA, Lubberink M, Gotte MJW, van Rossum AC (Neth Heart J 18:90–8, 2010).At the annual spring meeting of the NVVC, on 31 March, the first authors of both articles received a nice little statue of an owl (Prof. Durrer’s favourite animal) and an educational grant (supported by Astra-Zeneca). We would like to congratulate the authors with their awards, and we thank them for sending their good work to NHJ.E.E. van der Wall, on behalf of the Chief Editorial BoardEditor-in-Chief, NHJ