Nice ideas,

and yes, awards for people will increase the activity for each category. It would give more reason to participate in those subjects.

It gets repetitive when you don't get some sort of compensation for achieving top X.

Some people might be saying, "No point in awards", because they didn't get anything, while they did it. That's their problem, not the newer players'. It gives them an incentive to play, as it does for all the games that reward their players for completing certain actions/being ahead of the competition.