This year's winners are Sandec, the Department of Water and Sanitation in Developing Countries at Eawag and the Bremen Overseas Research & Development Association (BORDA) which works in the areas of poverty alleviation, sustainable protection of natural resources and the strengthening of social structures. Christian Zurbrügg, Director of Sandec, considers long-term commitment to be one of Sandec's greatest strengths when working to find solutions to water and sanitation issues in the developing world. He explains: "Our research projects are always based on a partnership approach. This means partnering with universities and research centres in the countries studied. Thus, I consider this award also a recognition of the excellent work of our partners, as well as, our collaboration with them. I would like to thank our partners for this." More information can be found in the IWA press release [pdf].