The WNE Innovation Awards is a prestigious ceremony that aims to showcase the key players in the civil nuclear industry who have demonstrated excellence and innovation in different fields. It is a unique opportunity to recognize the remarkable achievements of the industry and promote innovation in this sector. Know-how, mastery, agility and innovation are the keywords that encourage the civil nuclear sector to move towards a more responsible and less carbon-intensive world!
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WNE INNOVATION AWARDS
The innovation and expertise of the entire industry.
Find here the WNE INNOVATION AWARDS rules.
To navigate this page, please click on the links below:
Why apply ?
The WNE Innovation Awards ceremony allows you, as a candidate, to benefit from great visibility among other exhibitors as well as all participants of the exhibition. Every company has a chance as all categories have two types of applicants : large groups / mid-caps and SMEs / micro-companies
For all candidates
- A signature banner to use before the exhibition
- A signage to download and print for use on their stand
- Highlighted along with other participants in the WNE Daily
For Nominees
Three nominees by prize (category / Sub- category) will be announced on October 24, 2023 and will benefit from …
- A « nominee » banner to add to email signatures on October 25, 2023
- A presentation of the project in the press release dedicated to the WNE INNOVATION AWARDS nominees sent
- on October 24, 2023
- A mention in the newsletter sent on October 24, 2023
- A succinct presentation of the project on the WNE INNOVATION AWARDS dedicated page on the WNE website
- on October 24, 2023
- A mention as nominee in the WNE Tribune of Tuesday, November 28, 2023
- A « nominee » signage on the booth from the exhibition opening
- A “nominee” certificate awarded after the ceremony
For Winners
A trophy will be given to each winner who will also benefit from (in addition to the promotion given to nominees) …
- A « winner » banner to add to email signatures send just after the WNE INNOVATION AWARDS Ceremony.
- A mention as winner in the press release dedicated to the WNE INNOVATION AWARDS sent just after the Awards Ceremony.
- A promotion on the WNE INNOVATION AWARDS dedicated page on the WNE website.
- A mention as winner in the WNE Daily of Wednesday, November 29, 2023.
- A mention in the newsletter sent the evening of the first day, Tuesday, November 28, 2023.
- A “winner” certificate awarded during the ceremony (also applicable to the special prize).
- A “winner” signage on the booth from Wednesday, November 29, 2023.
- A mention as 2023 winner on the online exhibitor area and on the website of the next edition of WNE.
In the case of a collaborative file presented by several actors, only the project holder will receive the trophy.
Other participants in the winning collaborative file will receive a diploma
How to apply ?
Eligibility
To be eligible for the WNE Innovation Awards, candidates must be exhibitors on WNE. Applications can be registered on the dedicated website, which will be provided to you on your exhibitor space.
Jury
The jury is composed of up to 8 members selected for their expertise and knowledge of the civil nuclear industry. If a member of the jury's company is competing, they will not be able to participate in the assessment of the application.
The categories
SOCIETAL AND SUSTAINABLE RESPONSIBILITY INNOVATION
The impact of a company includes all qualitative and quantitative modifications (negative or positive) of the environment and its functioning (human or natural), created by a project, a process, an organism or organisms, or a product or products, over its entire life cycle.
A positive impact results from activities that benefit the said environment (human or natural), or whose objective is to prevent or correct the negative effects of the activities and externalities of the actors of the nuclear sector.
The assessment of a positive impact of a company’s project, process or product is a) qualified by the creation of added value for the stakeholders that may be affected by the company’s activities (local and territorial communities, end-users, natural and living environment) b) quantified through the measurement of flows and potential environmental and socio-economic impact indicators (specific indicators for water, air, soil resources and human health, but also economic indicators of human and territorial development).
NUCLEAR SAFETY INNOVATION
Nuclear safety is a term defining all activities related to improving and/or maintaining the integrity of the mechanisms, processes, tools or instruments containing radioactive material, to protect people and the environment from harmful effects.
This definition is not only restricted to nuclear sites. This Award is also open to applications dealing with logistics, manufacturing, components (non-exhaustive list) which bring additional nuclear safety to a global process.
OPERATIONAL EXCELLENCE INNOVATION
Operational excellence is a systematic and methodical approach led inside the company in order to maximize performance in terms of productivity, quality of products and reliability, nuclear safety, and more generally of performance...
SKILLS & KNOWLEDGE MANAGEMENT INNOVATION
It is defined as an integrated, systematic approach to identifying, acquiring, transforming, developing, disseminating, using, sharing, and preserving knowledge, relevant to achieving specified objectives.
Knowledge Management (KM) has been introduced to the nuclear industry as a response to the aging nuclear industry workforce, where the generation that designed, commissioned and initially operated these plants has begun to reach retirement age. KM tools for capture and transfer of knowledge from this aging workforce to its younger replacements have been emphasized.
While KM has certainly been used successfully for this purpose, KM has a larger, on-going application over the life of an NPP and beyond and this requirement is now a key feature of future workforce planning and development criteria for the New Nuclear Build programmes. Knowledge is often described as either Explicit, Implicit and Tacit categories.
PRODUCTS AND SERVICES INNOVATION
In this category, “Products” are defined as “technology bricks” or technological building blocks which will contribute to shape the present and future nuclear technology facilities, such as that cannot be qualified as “product” any project of a fully designed reactor. “Services” includes all processes and methods of an organization. The products and services can be located anywhere along the nuclear value chain.
The OECD, in its Oslo manual, defines innovation as the “implementation” of a new or significantly improved product (good or service) or process, a new marketing method, or a new organizational method in business practices, workplace organization or external relations.
Therefore, the quality of innovation of the products and services will be determined based on the solution they provide. Each application will have to demonstrate the key differentiator of their innovation, with a comparison of its proposed cases of use with current ones, providing clear evidence of how the proposed product/service sets itself apart from existing solutions.
