Infrastructure and construction projects include improving and maintaining the UK’s energy, environment (e.g. flood prevention, river quality, sewage and water systems), transport, telecommunications; and constructing new public buildings. These high investment projects are essential to the nation’s economic growth, development and prosperity.

This is a team award, recognising exceptional achievement from a government infrastructure and construction project. Nominations should:

• Satisfy the core criteria;
• Explain the impact of the programme on citizens, service users or audiences;
• Show how the project has embraced innovation and modern delivery approaches, contributed to environmental & sustainability outcomes, to achieve the benefits;
• Demonstrate exceptional project delivery, including stakeholder management to enable successful delivery.

This is a project team award, recognising exceptional achievement from a government digital and/or transformation project.

Digital programmes and projects implement modern digital and data solutions, to transition from ageing technology, deliver service improvements and efficiencies, and equip government departments for the future. Transformation programmes and projects change ways of working, often harnessing new digital and data technologies, to improve public services and/or make government more efficient. These projects are important for achieving cost savings, efficiency and ensuring our public services benefit from advances in innovation and technology.

Nominations should:

• Satisfy the core criteria;
• Explain the impact of the project on citizens, users or audiences.
• Show how the project ensures the needs of end users and stakeholders are understood and considered throughout the design and development of the solution.
• Explain how the project has embraced innovative digital solutions and technologies and data.
• Demonstrate exceptional project delivery, including management of organisational or societal change, to enable successful delivery of transformational outcomes, including cost savings and efficiency of public services.

Recognising excellence in project innovation, including collaborating on and experimenting with advanced project data analytics and AI. Teams should demonstrate improvements in project delivery as a result of this innovation.

Nominations should satisfy one of these criteria:

• Working collaboratively and inclusively across functions, departments and sectors to share and embed industry leading practice, capability and innovation, fostering beneficial change in the project delivery system.
• Embracing innovation through the experimental use of project data analytics or AI to improve project delivery capability, insights, evidence-based decision-making and project outcomes.

This is a team or project award.

Recognising skilled programme, project or portfolio management to deliver novel or complex work to an exceptional standard, in line with best practice. This is a team award.

Nominations should:

• Satisfy the core criteria;
• Explain what makes the nominee’s programme novel or complex;
• Explain what makes the nominee’s programme, project or portfolio management exceptional;
• State how the work has taken into account best practice and lessons learned from the successes and failures of other projects, programmes and sectors;
• Demonstrate how this programme, project or portfolio excellence has or will contribute to greater economic, environmental and social outcomes.

This is a team award, recognising excellent collaboration that spans the boundaries between teams, groups, departments, agencies, and administrations; building strong and trusted relationships in order to successfully deliver the benefits of a project or programme.

Nominations should:

• Satisfy the core criteria;
• Explain how the team has successfully used collaboration to deliver their project and desired benefits
• Showcase any innovative or creative approaches to collaboration and or user centred design;
• Demonstrate how the project spans organisational boundaries and the impact of this;
• Show how the team has successfully developed trusted relationships;
• Demonstrate the impact of these relationships on the team’s ability to deliver the benefits of the project or programme.

This is an individual or team award, recognising individuals or teams who have made an outstanding contribution to advancing the project delivery profession. Contributions may include (but are not limited to):

• Team-led initiatives such as building communities of practice or interest, special interest groups, networks, championing innovative approaches to delivering projects, running outreach services to attract new project delivery talent, promoting the roll out of initiatives that support the profession;
• Individual initiatives such as coaching, mentoring, role modelling, championing and volunteering, exceeding expectations and over and above the individual’s day job;
• Open to any level or grade.

• Satisfy the core criteria;
• Demonstrate how the contribution has had a positive impact on the project delivery profession
• Demonstrate how the contribution has raised the bar on the delivery of projects, programmes or portfolios
• Demonstrate how the contribution has helped to make project delivery a profession of choice.

This can be a team or individual award, recognising those who work to embed diversity and inclusion, driving positive change for our colleagues and making the Civil Service a model, open and transparent employer to better serve the public.

Nominations should:

• Satisfy the core criteria;
• Demonstrate how the nominee drives inclusion in the Civil Service either through a project or as a project delivery professional;
• Include specific examples of how the nominee has worked to identify and remove barriers;
• Show how the nominee goes the extra mile to ensure inclusivity through projects or as a project delivery professional.
• Show how inclusion is embedded into project outcomes and benefits.

This is an individual award, recognising the potential of someone, at G7 and below, in the first five years of their Civil Service career in (or associated with) project delivery.

Nominations should:

• Satisfy the core criteria;
• Demonstrate the nominee’s potential to excel in their future project delivery career;
• Take a holistic view of the nominee – their work, relationships with others, qualities that will help them flourish;
• Reference specific achievements of the nominee.