Nominations open for the annual Changemaker Awards

The University of Northampton (UON) is preparing once more to shine a light on community champions with the opening of nominations for our annual awards.

The seventh Changemaker Awards will recognise the most innovative and socially impactful projects and organisations while showcasing the achievements of University staff, students, and community members, locally, nationally and globally.

Changemaker is a UON-wide initiative which focuses on staff and students finding solutions to environmental or social problems to improve people’s lives, either at home or abroad.

Each year the Awards – the nominations for which are open to all until Monday 20 March – reflect and celebrate the diversity of the community that UON is part of. To date, 64 awards have been presented to 68 changemaking people or projects (some of the 2022 winners are pictured above).

Nominations from members of the community are especially welcome and one of the eight Award categories is Community Changemaker of the Year. This recognises the individual, community organisation or initiative from outside of the University who has demonstrated a significant commitment to Changemaking in the community.

Self-nominations are also welcome and the full list of categories is:

• Community Changemaker of the Year
• Culture and Heritage Changemaker of the Year
• Education Changemaker of the Year
• Enterprise Changemaker of the Year
• Health and Wellbeing Changemaker of the Year
• International Changemaker of the Year
• Staff Changemaker of the Year
• Student Changemaker of the Year.

Jay Baughan, Social Entrepreneur in Residence, says: “Over the past six years the Changemaker Awards have recognised so many truly inspiring Changemakers. This is the second Changemaker Awards I have been part of since joining UON and I would encourage anyone to make a nomination for those they feel are contributing to the world by addressing pressing social and environmental issues. It’s an honour to be part of the Awards’ process and I’m looking forward to celebrating the success of this year’s nominees and winners.”

For full details of the award categories and their criteria, visit the Changemaker Awards webpage where you can also read about all nominees and winners from the previous six award dinners.