eTwinning European Prizes

The main category of the eTwinning European Prizes is sponsored by the European Commission and has five levels:

• Pupils aged up to 6 (ECEC, Early childhood education and care)
• Pupils aged 7-11
• Pupils aged 12-15
• Pupils aged 16-19
• Pupils aged 16-19 (VET, vocational education and training)

Please note: if a project involves more than one age category, – the initiators of the project will have to decide unanimously in which category they desire to compete.

Each year National Support Organisations may also sponsor Special Category Prizes. Teachers may apply also for one of such Special Categories, if present, via the application form.

Process

eTwinning European Prizes are awarded to projects which pass various stages.

1. First of all, the project must obtain a National Quality Label. The NQL is given to projects that have reached a certain level of quality on five criteria. The evaluation is carried out by the National Support Service of each country.

2. Projects with the Quality Label must then also be awarded the European Quality Label, automatically conferred by the Central Support Service when a project:

• has been nominated for the European Quality Label by at least one National Support Service, after a screening process. Every National Support Service puts forward the top-ranking National Quality Labels based on their quality score.
• includes at least two partners that have received the National Quality Label. The European Quality Label is awarded only once a year and is featured on the eTwinning Portal.​​

3. Teachers involved in projects which have passed the previous two stages can apply for the eTwinning European Prizes. The application period for the eTwinning European Prizes is usually during the months of October and November.
 

4. All application entries are then evaluated via a thorough and painstaking procedure that involves jurors from the National Support Services (for a first screening), the Central Support Service and the European Commission.

Eligibility

1. To apply for the competition, projects must have been awarded the European Quality Label in any year of the project’s lifespan.
2. All projects must demonstrate that they have been active in the previous school year.
3. Only those partners who have received a European Quality Label for the project will be officially awarded, if their project wins.
4. Projects can only participate once in the eTwinning Prizes evaluation process: however, projects that have demonstrated a significant improvement over time can  apply a second time at the discretion of the National Support Services involved.

Rules

What is an entry?

An entry is a European collaborative eTwinning project involving schools from different countries using ICT. The project must have a tangible outcome that gives evaluators a concrete idea of the project’s value, process and results. Each entry should be described as follows:

• Title of the project.
• Project information including the correct age category as well as links and documents to project outcomes.
• Descriptions of the various elements of your projects as defined by the criteria (max. 150 words per criteria section).

*Important*: Submitters must publish as much of their work as possible, while taking into account data protection and copyright issues. Evaluators do not have access to restricted materials, such as private TwinSpaces.

Legal and Ethical Issues

All entries must follow European agreements on copyright. Short quotations may be used if the source is clearly indicated. Pictures, film, audio and other multimedia may be used only if produced by the school or similar, or if the owner has explicitly permitted use, or if taken from free sources such as Clip Art.

Entries submitted to the eTwinning Prizes competition are subject to the copyright policy of eTwinning, which is subject to Creative Commons 4.0. That means that their reproduction is authorised provided the source is acknowledged, except where otherwise stated. Where prior permission must be obtained for the reproduction of information, such permission shall cancel the aforementioned general permission and shall clearly indicate any restrictions on use.

Evaluation

Evaluators will consider the following criteria, which are the same for the awarding of National Quality Labels:

• Pedagogical Innovation: How aspects of the projects can be considered more innovative and creative regarding content and objectives, the approach, activities and methodology, final products, dissemination and publication.
• Curricular Integration: How the project was integrated into the existing curriculum.
• Collaboration between partner schools.
• Use of Technology: How to get beyond emailing; how the project made use of ICT tools creatively.
• Results, Impact and Documentation: What came out of the project as well as why your project deserves an award.

How to Apply

All eligible projects which have passed the process described above can apply.  Projects can only have one entry. Therefore, partners in each project should decide among themselves who is going to apply and submit the entry.

Entries are submitted by clicking the link available on eTwinning Live in the ‘projects’ tab, below the project description. The information submitted should be exhaustive: we encourage you to draft your application with a word processor and paste the text into the application form when you are ready. This will also allow you to share the entry with your partners before submitting.

The Prizes

Winners and runners up for each winning project in all categories (main and special ones) are invited to participate in the Annual eTwinning Conference, where:

• They are the guests of honour of the Prize Ceremony, and
• They have the opportunity to run a workshop, based on their project, for the participants of the conference.

All the eligible teachers in winning and runner-up projects receive a trophy and a certificate for them and their students.