Each year, ECHO, Center for Diversity Policy, invites universities of applied sciences and research universities to nominate socially engaged students for the ECHO Award. This year, we are introducing a renewed format in which three ECHO Awards will be presented to students who distinguish themselves through the impact they create on urgent societal issues.

Why are we reforming the ECHO Award?
Societal contexts are constantly evolving. In recent years, students have shown that they contribute to social change in a wide variety of ways. While the previous award categories (ECHO Award for Universities of Applied Sciences, ECHO Award for Research Universities, STEM Award, and Law & Tax Award) were valuable, the current social climate calls for a more flexible framework. In the new setup, the HBO and WO categories remain, but we are introducing a third category: the Actualities Award, which allows the jury to think across categories and respond to the most pressing societal developments of the coming years.