Selection criteria and rules for the eTwinning European prizes

What are the eligibility criteria?

• To apply for a prize, users must be registered in eTwinning and validated by the NSO. 
• The application form must be completed in its entirety (see ‘What is an entry?’ below) and submitted before the deadline.
• The application must refer to projects that have been awarded the European Quality Label in any year of the project’s lifespan and that were active in the previous school year.
• Projects can, in principle, only participate once in the eTwinning prizes evaluation process. However, projects that have demonstrated a significant improvement and development over time may apply a second time at the discretion of the NSO of the applicant.

How can teachers apply?

• All the eligible members of the projects that have passed the process described above can apply for one or more projects.  
• Each project can only have one entry. Therefore, partners in each project should decide among themselves who is going to apply and submit the entry. The entry can be further backed up by the other members of the project.
• Entries are submitted by clicking the link available on the eTwinning platform. 
• The information submitted should be exhaustive. Applicants are encouraged to draft the application in a Word document and paste the text into the application form when ready. This will also allow them to share the entry with the partners before submitting it.

What is an entry?

An entry is the result of the application form, which is submitted by an applicant and which refers to an eTwinning project (see above for eligibility). The project must have tangible outcomes that give evaluators a concrete idea of the project value, process and results. Each entry has the following elements:

• Project details
• Applicant’s details
• Age category 
• Descriptions of the various elements of the projects as defined by the criteria in the application form and consistent with the criteria of the National Quality Label 
• Links and documents to the project outcomes. Applicants are encouraged to 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.

What are the general rules? Are there reasons to be excluded?

• Entries submitted for the eTwinning prizes competition are subject to eTwinning’s copyright policy, which is subject to Creative Commons 4.0. This means that they can be reproduced 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.
• As for all eTwinning activities, eTwinning projects must adhere to the eTwinning code of conduct. Project members who violate the code are subject to the consequences described in Section D of the code of conduct, ‘Violation of the code of conduct’, which may also affect the project itself.
• In line with Articles 136 and 141 of the EU Financial Regulation, eTwinning shall exclude any contestant who has been found guilty of grave professional misconduct by having violated applicable laws or regulations or ethical standards of the teaching profession, or by having engaged in any wrongful conduct that has an impact on their professional credibility where such conduct denotes wrongful intent or gross negligence, including any of the following: 
  1. fraudulently or negligently misrepresenting information required for the verification of the absence of grounds for exclusion or the fulfilment of eligibility or selection criteria or in the implementation of the legal commitment; 
  2. entering into agreement with other persons or entities with the aim of distorting competition;
  3. violating intellectual property rights; 
  4. attempting to influence the decision-making of the authorising officer responsible during the award procedure; 
  5. attempting to obtain confidential information that may confer upon it undue advantages in the award procedure.

The participants in this competition are solely responsible for the activities carried out under the project that is the subject of the award.

In case of failure to comply with the rules, as well as data privacy, copyright and plagiarism rules, candidate teachers and their projects will not be considered as valid entries, and as a result, will be excluded from the competition.

What evaluation criteria are taken into account? 

Evaluators of the first round (from NSOs) and second round (European jury) will consider the following criteria:

• Collaboration between partner schools
• Use of technology
• Pedagogical approaches
• Curricular integration
• Results and documentation. 

In the third and final round, the grand jury takes into consideration several elements from the previous evaluation, such as the overall quality of the project, its replicability, the level of collaboration among partners from different countries and the relevance of the topics treated, etc.

What is the final prize?

Only those partners who have received a European Quality Label for the winning project will be officially awarded if their project wins.

The prize includes the following:

• A number of eligible teachers of the winning projects in all age categories will be invited by the European Commission to participate in the eTwinning annual conference. The cost of participation in the chosen event will be entirely funded by the European Commission: travel and accommodation for prize winners will be arranged by the Central Support Service.
• For the winning projects in all age categories: all eligible partners and their students of the winning projects in the main categories will receive:
  • A trophy and a certificate for all the members of the project 
  • A certificate for their schools 
  • A certificate for their students 
  • A token of appreciation to be defined on a yearly basis depending on budget availability.
• For the runner-up projects in all age categories, all eligible partners of the runner-up projects will receive:
  • A trophy and a certificate for the teachers
  • A token of appreciation to be defined on a yearly basis depending on budget availability.

Prizes for teachers and students, including the number of participant beneficiaries invited to the prize winners event, are subject to budget availability. The exact prize will be confirmed each year.