The International Commission for Acoustics established the “International Year of Sound Award for Outstanding Outreach Activity“.

This annual award encourages member societies to continue the momentum of the International Year of Sound 2020+ by undertaking innovative awareness-raising activities and recognizes an outstanding outreach activity undertaken by a group, committee, or individual member of a national Member Society or an International Affiliate during the previous year.

Among the requests received for this year’s edition, the Evaluation Panel decided to award the proposal presented by the Acoustical Society of Italy for the “Keep your hearing, keep your health” Symposium, organised in the frame of the 28th INAD “Sound that unite us” event, on 26 April 2023, thanks to the collaboration of three ICA members: the Acoustical Society of Italy (AIA), the Acoustical Society of Spain (SEA), and the Acoustical Society of Turkey (TAKDER).

The Symposium featured a full day of activities, including a documentary screening, a competition presentation, various video shows, a general discussion, and an afternoon scientific workshop with speeches on noise exposure and awareness in schools.

The successful symposium involved hundreds of students from the three countries, representing an opportunity to strengthen the collaboration between the three national acoustical societies and making an aggregation among students sharing similar projects.

The full recording of the event is available on the AIA YouTube channel.

An important follow-up of the experience resulted in March 2024 in submitting the project proposal ECHO (Education in aCoustics at scHools and cO-design of silent solutions) to an Erasmus call addressed to the school sector.

The award is accompanied by an amount of EUR 1,000 and a certificate of achievement.

The AIA has decided to allocate the amount for future awareness initiatives within INAD.

The ICA Member Societies and International Affiliates are invited to apply to one outreach activity held in 2024 according to the specifications set by the ICA.

The deadline for applying for the 2025 award for an event held in 2024 is 30 April 2025. More information is available here.