Neptune State Award for Water

Diver in the water
Photo: Wasserpreis Neptun / Marianne Wenighofer

The Neptune Award was founded in 1999 in order to illustrate the significance of water as a resource for life, the environment, the economy, arts, and the society.

Since then, the award has been given away once every two years (every odd year) around World Water Day (22 March). It is well-established in the Austrian water scene and has been continuously expanded throughout the years.

The Neptune Water Award is an initiative of the Federal Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry, Regions and Water Management in cooperation with the Austrian Association for Gas and Water (Österreichische Vereinigung für das Gas- und Wasserfach) and the Austrian Water and Waste Management Association (Österreichischer Wasser- und Abfallwirtschaftsverband).

Goals

The Neptune Water Award pursues three key goals:

  • Awareness raising
  • The aim of the award is to raise awareness for the prudent and sustainable use of domestic water resources.
  • Promoting innovation
  • Answers to global challenges in the water sector should be promoted and market opportunities for providers of Austrian water technologies encouraged.
  • Platform building
  • The Award's aim is to enhance networking between players in the Austrian water community.

Target groups

As an award of the Austrian water scene, the Neptune State Award for Water is granted mainly for projects related to Austria, but individual categories also permit international participation. Specific target groups range from companies, NGOS or municipalities, to schools, other educational institutions and artists, to science and research. A separate audience category addresses a wide public as well.

Categories

The Neptune Water Award is awarded in four specialist categories and one audience category.  The categories are for each Water Award under another motto. First and foremost, the Neptune Water Award is awarded to the overall most sustainable water project.

Previous successes

The Neptune Water Award has been very popular in recent years. In 2011, the Neptune Water Award achieved a new participation record with 3,800 entries. For an overview of the nominated and winning projects so far, please visit the website of the Neptun Award.

Partners

With regard to the call for entries to the Neptune Water Award, the four hosting institutions [Federal Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry, Regions and Water Management,  Federal Ministry of Science, Research and Economy,  Austrian Association for Gas and Water (Österreichische Vereinigung für das Gas- und Wasserfach) , and the Austrian Water and Waste Management Association (Österreichischer Wasser- und Abfallwirtschaftsverband)] cooperate with the Federal Provinces and are supported by sponsoring partners.
The Federal Provinces organise their own province-wide competitions in the audience category. Sponsoring partners take over sponsorship for individual categories.

Contact

Contact person at the Ministry for the Neptune Water Award:

Susanne Brandstetter
susanne.brandstetter@bml.gv.at

Further information