Witteveen+Bos Scriptieprijs 2025: Social design

Witteveen+Bos Scriptieprijs 2025: Social design
At Witteveen+Bos, we value creativity, drive and (sustainable) innovations. We see it as our job to encourage the engineers of the future in their persuit of a better world. Therefore, we will award the Thesis Prize for the 4th time in the autumn of 2025. Each edition focuses on one of Witteveen+Bos’ seven sustainable design principles. The prize is open to all students of universities and universities of applied sciences. With the prize, Witteveen+Bos aims to promote sustainable design among the new generation of consultants and engineers. This year the theme is: Social design.
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The Thesis Prize has two winners and will be awarded to the wo- and hbo-thesis that contributes best or most to – and/or has the greatest impact on – the (further) development of the Witteveen+Bos sustainable design principle being highlighted that year, and which explicitly aligns with at least one of the United Nations’ seventeen Sustainable Development Goals.
The conditions for submission are as follows. The thesis:
- is written as part of an university/college thesis;
- contributes to and/or has an impact on the (continued) development of Witteveen+Bos’ sustainable design principle ‘Social Design’;
- explicitly aligns with 1 of the 17 Sustainable Development Goals of the United Nations (UN);
- is innovative;
- is socially relevant;
- is applicable;
- is published in the academic year of the award ceremony, 2024-2025;
- is submitted by 15 September 2025 via this form.
The prize consists of €3.000,- to be used by the winner in connection with the relevant sustainable design principle. This could take the form of a course of study or related trip, a training course, a conference, project development, or the further development of the winner’s abilities. The winner also receives the Witteveen+Bos Sustainable Design Trophy.
Social design
The ‘Social design’ principle means that, as an engineer, you consider how you can increase the social impact of your project by not restricting yourself to technical measures. Engineers are used to creating social benefits with smart technical interventions, but sometimes more is needed, such as behavioural or socio-economic measures.
For example, laying more asphalt is not always the best way to solve traffic jams, but behavioural measures such as speed limits are. In the same way, widening a beach to improve water safety will not necessarily lead to extra recreational benefits, even though there is literally space for them now. After all, the right socio-economic conditions must be in place for this: can entrepreneurs obtain permits and financing, etc.? If the right conditions are missing, they must be created, which means adding socio-economic measures. Engineers who are aware of this can greatly increase their projects’ social impact. This enables them to identify the most relevant social measures easily. The trick is to ‘work with what you see’.
