After ten years, the Jaap van der Graaf Prize is making way for a new prize, under a different name. The annual Jaap van der Graaf Prize was awarded in January of each year at the Delft University of Technology's 'Vakantiecursus' ('Holiday Course'), to a student or researcher who published the best English-language article on waste water treatment in the previous year. Witteveen+Bos will launch a new, thematically broader student prize in 2020, which will be open to both universities and colleges of higher education.

The Jaap van der Graaf Prize was established in 2009 on the initiative of the Witteveen+Bos consultancy and engineering firm when Van der Graaf stepped down as professor of wastewater treatment at Delft University of Technology. Jaap van der Graaf was general manager of the internationally operating engineering and consultancy firm from 1988 to 2003. The prize consisted of a cash prize of 5,000 euros and a glass object and was intended to further raise the international profile of Dutch expertise in the field of water technology in the urban water cycle.

An overview of the prize winners of the past ten years:

• 2019 - Arnoud de Wilt, with article 'Enhanced pharmaceutical removal from water in a three step bio-ozone bio process', published in the journal Water Research.
• 2018 - Alexander Hendriks, with article 'Growth media in anaerobic fermentative processes: The underestimated potential of thermophilic fermentation and anaerobic digestion', published in the journal Biotechnology Advances.
• 2017 - Heleen de Fooij, with the article 'Wastewater as a resource: Strategies to recover resources from Amsterdam's wastewater', is published in the journal Resources, Conservation and Recycling.
• 2016 - André Marques Arsénio, with the article 'Pipe failure predictions in drinking water systems using satellite observations', published in the journal Structure and Infrastructure Engineering.
• 2015 - Tomasso Lotti, with article 'Simultaneous partial nitritation and anammox at low temperature with granular sludge', published in Water Research.
• 2014 - Ziye Hu, with article 'Nitrogen Removal by a Nitritation-Anammox Bioreactor at Low Temperature', published in Applied Environmental Microbiology.
• 2013 - Chris Ruiken, with article 'Sieving wastewater - Cellulose recovery, economic and energy evaluation', published in the journal Water Research.
• 2012 - Mari Winkler, with article 'Segregation of Biomass in Cyclic Anaerobic/Aerobic Granular Sludge allows the Enrichment of Anaerobic Ammonium Oxidizing Bacteria at Low Temperatures', published in Environmental Science & Technology.
• 2011 - Merle de Kreuk with the article 'Behavior of polymeric substrates in an aerobic granular sludge system', published in Water Research. 
• 2010 - Marlies Kampschreur, with the article 'Nitrous oxide emission during wastewater treatment', published in Water Research.