GENE

Global
Education
Award
2020/2021
Call for Nominations

Quality and Good Practice in

Global Education across Europe.

GENE is funded by the European Commission and by the following Ministries and Agencies: Austrian Development Agency and the Ministry of Education, Science and
Research, Austria; Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Foreign Trade and Development Cooperation, Belgium; Ministry of Education, Culture, Sport and Youth, Cyprus; Czech
Development Agency, Czech Republic; Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Estonia; Ministry for Foreign Affairs, Finland; Agence Française de Développement and the Ministry for
Europe and Foreign Affairs, France; Engagement Global, with funding from the Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development, Germany; Irish Aid,
Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade, Ireland; Ministry of Foreign and European Affairs, Luxembourg; Ministry of Education and Employment, Malta; Ministry of
Education, Montenegro; Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Camões – Institute for Cooperation and Language, Portugal; Slovak Agency for International Development
Cooperation, Slovakia; Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Slovenia.
PURPOSE OF THE AWARD
1. Highlight examples of good practice and
quality Global Education initiatives.
2. Enhance policy learning across borders so
that learning from quality Global Education
initiatives might be multiplied.
GENE is a network of Ministries and Agencies
promoting policy learning and sharing among
participants. To this end, the 2020/2021 Award
edition entails an in-depth dialogue among
policymakers regarding what constitutes
quality Global Education. The aim of the Award
is to identify examples of quality Global
Education practice in Europe, based on this
dialogue, and to offer recognition and
disseminate learning from such examples
among policymakers and other stakeholders in
Europe. Ministries and Agencies who
participate in GENE can nominate up to three
Global Education initiatives from their
country.
ELIGIBILITY
Nominated initiatives shall be run by a
legally constituted entity with
headquarters in the EU, EEA, EU candidate
countries and other European countries
associated with GENE.
The core focus of the initiative shall be on
Global Education in a European country or
countries but it can also have components
or elements outside of Europe.
National funding scheme support is not a
prerequisite.
SELECTION PROCESS
Phase 1 – Ministries and Agencies participating
in GENE can nominate initiatives from their own
countries, maximum three per country, that
exemplify quality and that may be fruitful for
policy learning in other countries. To nominate,
they fill in a simple questionnaire, which they
send to the GENE secretariat at
award@gene.eu with a short paragraph
justifying the suggested initiative/project from
the policy perspective.
The type of initiative is flexible. It could for
example be an innovative GE teacher
education programme, an out-of-the-box
partnership, a brilliant NGO project, an inspiring
whole-school approach, a youth work initiative,
or an adult learning project. Nominated
initiatives should however be run by a legally
constituted body and should reflect back on
the issue of what represents quality Global
Education, with a view to inspire stakeholders
in other countries, and in particular other
policymakers.
GENE will award 10 000 Euro to up to five
most inspiring Global Education initiatives.
The money is intended to support, improve
and/or expand the work. Additionally, other
inspiring initiatives will be included in a
GENE Award summary of quality initiatives
and will receive a certificate of recognition.
While welcoming nomination of GE projects
from all sectors that exemplify excellence
and have the potential for cross-border
policy learning/adaptation/up-scaling, in
2020/2021 GENE is particularly interested
to consider nominations in regard to
Global Education with and by young
people: in formal, non-formal and
informal settings - schools, youth
organisations, youth movements and
youth-led initiatives.
Ministries and agencies are also welcome to
make their decisions in consultation with the
key GE stakeholders in their countries or
with their GENE peers from other European
countries should they feel to do so. GENE is
happy to assist and facilitate this peer learning
process.
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SELECTION PROCESS
Phase 2 – The GENE secretariat will then
contact the nominated organisations and
invite them to submit the information required
for the application.
Phase 3 – The GENE Board will make the final
selection, considering additional criteria of
diversity and geographical balance.

CRITERIA
The initiatives have to be in line with the
Maastricht definition of Global
Education (2002): “Global Education is
education that opens people’s eyes and
minds to the realities of the world, and
awakens them to bring about a world of
greater justice, equity and human rights
for all. GE is understood to encompass
Development Education, Human Rights
Education, Education for Sustainability,
Education for Peace and Conflict
Prevention and Intercultural Education;
being the global dimensions of Education
for Citizenship”, contributing to
Sustainability, Global justice Human Rights
for all.
In line with the Maastricht definition, there
should be strong justice focus.
There should be an acknowledgement of
the interconnectedness between the
global and local, i.e. relating the
relevance of the issues addressed to the
wider context; what happens locally is
linked to the global level and vice-versa
(the so-called “glocal” dimension).
Initiative should be of sufficient quality to
enable learning in other countries and
suggest strategies that can be transferred
across borders.
The educational approach should be one
where all those involved are learners and
take an active, participatory and critical
role in the learning process, whether in
formal, non-formal or informal education
settings, including educational action.
The proposed initiatives should be
ongoing or recently concluded.

TIMEFRAME

23 NOV 2020 25 JAN 2021 26 FEB 2021 7 APR 2021 22 APR 2021

OFFICIAL DEADLINE FOR DEADLINE FOR FINAL AWARD

ANNOUNCEMENT NOMINATIONS APPLICATIONS SELECTION CEREMONY
OF THE AWARD (AT 23.55 CET)

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