As announced at our last General Assembly in May 2026 in Paris, the EPA Board of Directors is now opening the Call for Applications for the 2026 EPA ALCUIN Award.

The EPA ALCUIN award was first launched in 1991 by EPA to highlight the role of parents in the education of their children. It honours the best educational innovation in Europe by giving this recognition to a person, a school, a group, or an activity nominated by EPA members, Ministries of Education in the EU countries, or the European Commission.

This award is assigned to the best educational initiative judged on the following criteria:

● Originality. The project should have the quality of being new and original. The characteristics of uniqueness and singularity are difficult to appreciate/achieve in Europe. If the concept is based on existing activities, the original sources need to be declared. The minimum requirement for a proper ALCUIN candidate is the adaptation to local or national needs with respect to a specific (multi)cultural situation. The project should demonstrate inventiveness, imaginativeness, a certain extent of audacity, authenticity, individuality, and rarity.

● Contribution to education. The project should be a good practice showing the influence and input of parents in the learning process of their children. EPA especially appreciates a holistic approach to education. Implementation of non-formal and informal learning and the involvement of parents as “lifelong learners” – educators, trainers, role models, and learning adults, etc.

● Involvement of parents as a characteristic. Parents and parents’ associations should be the main actors in the project. The project should have a real interest and advantage for parents and schools.

● Constructive approach to home-school relationships in education. To see “Parents as Primary Educators” is EPA’s core paradigm. The EPA ALCUIN award is intended to give a floor to successful support of this parental role in partnership with educational institutions. The project should be characteristic of the actors and recipients and have strong personal features.

● Its potential as a “role model” in Europe with easy dissemination and applicability. Every impactful activity is governed by optimum adaptation to specific needs. The
ALCUIN trophy can only be awarded to initiatives that exhibit good performance along a clear vision. Disseminating experiences from a winning project should encourage member associations to implement their own activities based on these examples. The Jury is chaired by a member of the EPA Board or Team. Annually, three new jurors are selected from relevant stakeholder groups, bringing expertise from areas such as education, advocacy, parent representation, and institutional governance, and often come from our extensive partner networks or are associated with our project partners.

SUBMISSION of APPLICATION
Candidates can be put forward by:

● A member of EPA.
● A Ministry of Education.
● The European Commission.

The application is done via an online form (link below). Applications have to be in English. Please explain the main characteristics of the project in the application form, and take your time to link it to the five criteria listed above. To be eligible for the ALCUIN trophy, all five criteria must be fulfilled. Multiple submissions from
a single country/organisation are accepted, provided they represent distinct, independent local or regional projects.

ADDITIONAL MATERIAL (optional)
We encourage you to send a short presentation (maximum 5 slides) with supporting visuals from the project or a brief video/trailer, if you wish to give a visual impression. You can send this supporting material until OCTOBER 25th, 2026, to the address AlcuinAward@europarents.eu

AWARD PROCEDURE & ANNOUNCEMENT OF WINNER
The first prize will be announced and given during the General Assembly & Conference in Berlin, Germany, on November 13/14, 2026. All shortlisted candidates will receive certificates in recognition of their outstanding contributions.
As all projects will be presented in Berlin before the winner is announced, each applicant has to nominate one person to be physically present in Berlin to introduce the project and explain how it fulfils the criteria. Please nominate this person within your application.
Please note that the presentation must be in English, and that no interpreting is foreseen. You may choose to bring a consecutive interpreter at your own expenses if need be. If you do not have the name of the person yet at the time of your application, please send the name alcuinaward@europarents.eu by October 25 separately. Please remember to also fill in the GA registration form for the relevant person.
Should an in-person presentation not be possible, please inform alcuinaward@europarents.eu and we look for a suitable solution (potential online presentation, nominating another EPA member) together.

ONLINE SUBMISSION
Via this link, you can access the application form: https://forms.gle/TETKjwvrmaHWD7no6

The DEADLINE for submitting applications is October 25th, 2026. Once submitted, you will receive a link and be able to modify your application form until October 25th, 2026.

We are excited to receive your application and look forward to learning about innovative educational practices.