Workshop & Events

During the NICOLE Spring Workshop 2023 in Paris, the NICOLE Innovation Award ceremony was held.
Once again this year, two NICOLE Innovation Awards were made available, following the successful introduction of two distinct categories for the NICOLE Innovation Awards in Porto back in 2021.

The first award, the NICOLE Innovative Project Award, aims to reward innovative solutions and the second award, the NICOLE Emerging Talent Award, aims to recognize the outstanding innovative achievements and contributions made by emerging talents in the field of sustainable land management.

Watch the interview with Iris van der Veen from TAUW Group, recipient of the Emerging Talent Award and with Pierre Jamin from NAGARE, winner of the Innovative Project Award.

NICOLE Innovative Project Award

The top 3 entries for the NICOLE Innovative Project Award gave a pitch presentation at the NICOLE Spring Workshop in Paris.
The pitched projects were:

• Development of biological treatment of 1,4-dioxane in laboratory and field pilots (Greensoil, Wageningen University).
• Optimization of risk management plans for pollutants dispersion in aquifers by use of innovative mass flux and mass discharge approaches (Nagaré Hydro SRL).
• TrapOx® - An advanced ISCO technology for fast and highly effective in situ groundwater remediation (Intrapore, Mares, Helmholtz-Centre).

Following the collective vote of all workshop participants, the winner of this year's NICOLE Innovative Project Award is:

Optimization of risk management plans for pollutants dispersion in aquifers by use of innovative mass flux and mass discharge approaches (Nagaré Hydro SRL).

NICOLE Emerging Talent Award

The submissions for the NICOLE Emerging Talent Award were evaluated based on the achievements, the presentation and the references of the proposed emerging talent.

The top 2 entries were selected to give a pitch presentation at the workshop, and all participating NICOLE members voted for one of the two entries.

We are very proud of all these promising emerging talents and NICOLE will continue to encourage their innovative spirit! 

• Winner: Iris van der Veen (TAUW)
• David Holmes (Geosyntec)

We congratulate all nominees, and we are proud of your achievements. Your pitches have been very well received and were highly appreciated by the participants of the NICOLE Workshop. And moreover, all of you very much contributed to the diversity in speakers and presenters. 

Thank you for joining us! And of course special congratulations to the winners!

1. The topic of the NICOLE Innovative project Award 2023 is:

Innovative remediation, monitoring control technologies, products and management options to deal with challenging contaminants, leading to time and/or cost-efficient sustainable remediation solutions.

2. The NICOLE Emerging Talent Award 2023 is reaching out to early career professionals. 

The NICOLE Professional Award aims to recognise those who are really embracing innovation and embracing the innovative culture especially at an early stage in their careers in sustainable land management. For this particular award we are not interested in one specific development but rather the overall personal approach to innovation.

General Announcement NICOLE Innovation Awards

The NICOLE Innovation Awards 2023 are open to individuals or groups of people, irrespective of NICOLE membership.

The Jury consists of the NICOLE Innovation Working Group (preselection) and the NICOLE workshop participants.

The Jury will select the top 3 entries for each award based on the criteria listed in the call. Based on this preselection, the three candidates for each award will be invited to give a short presentation of about their entry during the workshop; make a reservation in your calendar on 11 May 2023, Paris, France. After the pitches of the top 3 of each award, the participants in the workshop can vote for their favorite entry.

The Award winners will be announced during the conference dinner on 11 May 2023 in Paris, France.

Prizes are:
€1500 for the winning entry on the NICOLE Innovative Project Award 2023.
€750 for the winning application for the NICOLE Emerging Talent Award 2023