Sustainability Project Award

Does your ARU assignment, project, dissertation or class activity link to sustainability? If so, you could be eligible to enter our Sustainability Project Award competition.

The Sustainability Project Award is open to all students (including recent alumni) who have completed or are nearing the completion of a dissertation, project or assignments that meets the below criteria.

The award is also open to group work such as class activities. Contact [email protected] to discuss whether your group work could be eligible.

There are five award categories:

• Overall Best Scoring
• Highly Commended (Undergraduate)
• Highly Commended (Postgraduate)
• Most Creative
• Group Award

All five winners will receive a Green Heron digital badge, certificate, the option to present at ARU’s Engage Conference, and the space to be celebrated in our media outlets. This is a fantastic opportunity to gain academic recognition for your hard work and showcase your achievements on your CV, to future employers and to your peers.

Eligibility and criteria

To be eligible for entry into the competition, your work must meet at least one of the following criteria:

• Contribute to furthering knowledge and/or understanding of a topic which addresses social, environmental or economic sustainability challenges.
• Have a direct link to an aspect of sustainability which is developed in the research and/or as part of the accompanying reflection.
• Related dissertations and projects must focus on sustainability-related topics, explicitly linking to “sustainability”, “social responsibility”, and/or the UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).
• Have a focus or reflection on key sustainability strategies such as circular economy, future thinking, or backcasting.
• Be creative work that aims to engage its audience to reflect or inform on the topic of sustainability.

View full details of the award and conditions in our guide (PDF).

Variety of submission options

The award is open to undergraduate and postgraduate students across all faculties and all campuses.

The first submission deadline is 16 April 2027. If your project is not complete at this stage (awaiting results, or part of an incomplete project/dissertation, etc.), a current overview of the project will be fine. We can provide some feedback if you wish to develop your submission further. Please submit your entry as an email attachment or link to [email protected]

If you miss this date, or do not require feedback, you can submit by the final submission deadline of 11 May.

We welcome submissions across a range of media, reflecting and explaining how you feel your dissertation/project links to sustainability, including:

• A reflective document (up to 500 words)
• A presentation (up to ten slides)
• An audio podcast recording – for example, an interview or edited highlights from a discussion (up to five minutes)
• A video – for example, an animation or vlog (up to five minutes)
• A piece of art, accompanied by 200-400 words of reflective writing explaining the inspiration for the work and links to sustainability
• An A1 scientific poster

All entries must include a separate document with list of relevant references.

Submission deadlines

• First submission: 16 April 2027
• Final submission: 11 May 2027

For more information, contact [email protected] or [email protected]

Previous winners

2025/2026 Overall Winner: South Downs manifesto (PDF) – Crawford Wright (MSc Sustainability)

2025/2026 Most Creative and Highly Commended (Undergraduate): An analysis of inclusive tourism experience in UK (PDF) – Alessandro Russo (BSc Business with Tourism Management)

2025/2026 Highly Commended (Postgraduate): Climate-related health risks with vulnerable older populations in the East of England; a critical understanding from engagement and involvement (PDF) – Rosie Eacott (PhD)

(Please note: these were aligned to different to criteria and submission options)