Anirudh Rajesh wins Marc Cornelissen Brightlands Award 2025
With his startup, Rajesh is developing bacteria that remove salt from seawater: an economical alternative to traditional reverse osmosis.
Published on October 12, 2025
Marc Cornelissen Brightlands Award for Anirudh Rajesh
Team IO+ selects and features the most important news stories on innovation and technology, carefully curated by our editors.
Anirudh Rajesh has won the Marc Cornelissen Brightlands Award 2025 with his startup Aestuarium. After his pitch about bacteria that remove salt from seawater, jury chairman Maurits Groen declared him the winner; he received the trophy and a cash prize of €35,000.
The presentation of the seventh Marc Cornelissen Brightlands Award took place at Watersley Sports & Talent Park in Sittard, under the watchful eye of researchers, students, entrepreneurs, and representatives from the four Brightlands campuses.
Salt from seawater
With his startup, Rajesh is developing bacteria that remove salt from seawater: an energy-efficient alternative to traditional reverse osmosis. His mission is to make affordable and sustainable drinking water available to everyone. “Winning this award will enable us to build a first prototype that can desalinate 50 liters of water per day,” says Rajesh. Aestuarium is located in the startup loft at Chemelot Campus in Geleen.
The jury praised all finalists for their courage, creativity, and perseverance. “All three had the potential to win,” said jury chairman Maurits Groen. “The main question was: who would benefit most from this prize?”
Scalable and affordable
The jury was unanimously enthusiastic about the choice of Anirudh Rajesh. "Anirudh is tackling one of the greatest challenges of our time: the global water shortage. While the rest of the world is looking for thermal solutions, he has opted for a completely new, biological approach. Using bacteria that he activates and reuses, he is developing a scalable and affordable way to convert salt water into drinking water. He is following a careful, realistic path, with a crystal-clear vision and presentation. At this stage, he can make the best use of this award. We are happy to give him that little push, so that in ten years' time we can say: the Award enabled him to realize his plans more quickly."
Other finalists
The other two candidates were Timmy Bours, founder and CEO of Clean Water Global, and John Smits, founder and managing director of SAM Panels. Bours develops scalable systems to recover valuable substances from wastewater. His goal is cleaner water and a circular economy in which raw materials are reused efficiently. Smits develops biobased panels without harmful substances that store CO2 for a long time. With a buy-back and recycling system, he strives for a fully circular construction chain.
The Marc Cornelissen Brightlands Award is an incentive prize for talented sustainability pioneers who, in the spirit of Marc Cornelissen, are committed to the world of tomorrow.