The Global RCE Service Centre at the United Nations University - Institute for the Advanced Study of Sustainability (UNU-IAS) announces a call for applications to the annual RCE Awards 2024.

The annual RCE Awards celebrate outstanding Education for Sustainable Development (ESD) projects conducted by Regional Centres of Expertise on ESD (RCEs) across the world. These awards highlight projects that have significantly empowered people and communities and advanced transformative education through multi-stakeholder collaboration towards sustainable development.

This year, the RCE Awards 2024 will also include a separate category for youth-led projects, recognizing initiatives led by individuals under the age of 35.

The submission due date is 20 September 2024 (11:59pm JST). We look forward to receiving your applications.

Eligibility
To apply for the RCE Awards, nominated projects must meet the following criteria:

• Projects must be conducted by organisations and members of officially acknowledged RCEs.
• Projects must not have received recognition  in previous RCE Awards.

Note: RCEs are limited to a maximum of three (3) RCE Award submissions per RCE.

Selection Criteria
The selection criteria for the RCE Awards are the following:

• Address sustainability challenges in their region by empowering people and advancing community engagement.
• Demonstrate multi-stakeholder collaboration to promote formal, non-formal, and/or informal learning towards sustainable development.
• Exhibit innovative and transformative education practices, including action-oriented pedagogies for ESD.
• Lead to or create tangible outputs and outcomes at local, national, and/or global levels, including contributions to policy development.
• Discuss any challenges faced during implementation and how they were addressed.
• Articulate a clear future strategy for development and demonstrate high potential to expand impact.

Application Form
Please complete this online form to submit your application.

To preview all items and questions and prepare your response in advance, you may use this Word document template. You can type your answers into the documents and save them on your device. When the draft is complete, you can copy and paste all the information into the online form at once. Please ensure that you do not exceed the specified word limit for the descriptive answers. Note that the online form does not have a save draft function.

Note: The new online application form was created for this year’s RCE Awards by combining elements of the project report form and the RCE Awards application form. The questions have been modified to include multiple-choice options in addition to descriptive parts.

Submission Due Date
The submission due date is Friday, 20 September 2024 (11:59pm JST).

Please note that late submission will not be considered.

Recognition Level
Based on the quality and impact of the projects, the awards will be presented in the following levels:

• Outstanding Flagship Project: For projects that have made critical contributions to empowering people and communities and in advancing transformative education for sustainable development
• Acknowledged Flagship Project: For projects recognised for their significant contributions
• Honourable Mention: For projects deserving recognition for their notable efforts

Review and Result Announcement
A review of the submitted materials is to be undertaken by the RCE Award Evaluation group comprising representatives from UNU-IAS and the Ubuntu Committee of Peers. Award recipients will be announced and featured on the RCE and UNU-IAS website.