Aquatech Innovation Awards
The Aquatech Innovation Awards celebrate the technologies, projects and people moving the water industry forward. Discover the ideas making a difference and the people behind them.
Ready to enter your innovation?
Whether you're exhibiting at Aquatech Amsterdam or not, you can take part. Choose the registration option that applies to you.
Exhibiting at Aquatech Amsterdam?
Put your innovation in the spotlight and enter as an exhibitor.
Not exhibiting? You can still enter.
Have an innovation to share? Enter without exhibiting at the event.
The Aquatech Innovation Award Categories
- Water Treatment
- Circular Water & Resource Recovery
- Digitalisation & AI Award
- Startup Breakthrough Award
- Industrial & Corporate Project Award
- Lifetime Legacy Award
- Young Water Changemaker Award
- Community Award (Overall Winner)
The entries will be judged on 3 critera
- Originality (50%)
- Practicality (technical, economical, feasibility, 25%)
- Sustainability (environment, security, energy efficiency, 25%)
The Aquatech Innovation Award jury
- Prof.Dr.Ir. C.J.N Buisman (Wetsus)
- Prof. Dr. Ir. W. M. de Vos (TU Twente)
- Dr, Paul O Callaghan (Bluetech Research)
- Dr. Ir. Wilbert van de Ven EMBA (Grundfos Holding A/S)
- Ir. C.A. Uijterlinde (STOWA)
- Prof. M. Kennedy, PhD (IHE Delft, Institute for Water Education)
- Prof. Drs. J.S. Vrouwenvelder, PhD (KAUST King Abdullah University of Science and Technology)
- Dr. Ted Mao (University of Toronto)
Supporting Water for Life
All registration fees for the Aquatech Innovation Awards are donated to Water for Life, helping provide safe drinking water, sanitation and hygiene to vulnerable communities worldwide.
Supported by Dutch drinking water companies, Water for Life ensures that 100% of donations go directly to projects, creating lasting impact where it is needed most.
Learn more about Water for Life at Water for Life.
Overall winner Innovation Award 2025
A new innovation developed in the Netherlands that can sustainably remove micro-pollutants during wastewater treatment has been crowned the Overall Winner of this year’s Aquatech Innovation Award. The development by consulting engineers Royal HaskoningDHV is the result of collaboration with Wageningen University.
Known as ‘Aurea’, the solution combines the best properties of biological activated carbon filtration and oxidative treatment to remove a wide range of organic micro-pollutants. It is designed for use in wastewater treatment plants, drinking water production sites, and industrial wastewater treatment facilities, helping to meet the objectives of the European Urban Wastewater Treatment Directive (UWWTD).
