The King's Awards for Enterprise

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Eligibility

To apply for the King’s Award for Enterprise your organisation must:

  • be based in the UK (including the Channel Islands and the Isle of Man)
  • have a good compliance record with HM Revenue and Customs (HMRC) - for example, showing you pay the right amount of tax on time
  • be a self-contained enterprise under its own management and complete its own accounts
  • have at least 2 full-time UK employees or part-time equivalents
  • demonstrate strong environmental, social and governance practices

Your organisation can be a business, non-profit or in the public sector.

Each of the award categories has additional entry criteria.

International Trade

To apply for the International Trade award, you must also:

  • have made a minimum of £100,000 in overseas sales in the first year of your entry and show year-on-year growth
  • prove that your organisation has achieved outstanding growth in overseas earnings relative to your business size and sector
  • prove steep year-on-year growth (without dips) in overseas sales over 3 years - or substantial year-on-year growth (without dips) over 6 years

Innovation

To apply for the Innovation award, you must also:

  • have an innovation that has not been sold before
  • have had your innovation available on the market for at least 2 years
  • have recovered all the investments made in your innovation or show that the innovation will recover its full costs in future
  • show outstanding commercial success as a result of innovation between 2 to 5 years

Your innovation should be in one of the following categories:

  • invention, design or production of goods
  • performance of services
  • marketing and distribution
  • after-sale support of goods or services

Sustainable Development

To apply for the Sustainable Development award, you must also:

  • show how you’ve achieved outstanding sustainable development for more than 2 years
  • give evidence of the benefits or positive outcomes of your actions or interventions
  • show how your company and its senior leaders pioneer sustainable development in your sector or community
  • show how you’ve overcome challenges with sustainability that are specific to your sector

You can include examples, such as showing how you’ve:

  • developed an innovative product, service or process that has environmental benefits
  • made sustainability an essential part of your organisation, supply chain or community

Read the United Nations sustainable development goals to identify which goals are relevant to your work.

Promoting Opportunity through social mobility

To apply for this award, your organisation must have a programme that supports people from disadvantaged backgrounds in improving their job skills and their chances of finding work.

This includes doing one or more of the following, for at least 2 years:

  • providing work experience or careers advice
  • mentoring
  • offering interview and job-related training
  • making sure your recruitment process is open to everyone

You’ll need to prove the benefits for:

  • the people you’ve supported
  • your organisation
  • your employees
  • the wider community

You cannot apply if social mobility is the main focus of your organisation.

If you’re a training provider or educational organisation, you can only apply if you do one of the following:

  • apply with a business
  • have a social mobility initiative for your employees
View a printable version of the whole guide

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