Time to polish up your entry for the European higher education communications ‘Oscars’ and gain the recognition you deserve from PR and marketing peers across the continent.

Gisella Bengtsson, right, from Uppsala University, Sweden, receives last year's EUPRIO Award from Sys Christina Vestergaard.

Gisella Bengtsson from Uppsala University, Sweden, receives last year’s EUPRIO Award from Sys Christina Vestergaard.

The annual EUPRIO Awards shine the spotlight on outstanding campaigns and projects and encourage the sharing of best practice by university communication teams all over Europe.

Judging and presentations take place at EUPRIO’s annual conference, which this year will see several hundred delegates coming together in Perugia, the beautiful capital of Italy’s Umbria region from September 6-9.

Winner invited to next conference

The winning university will be invited to send a representative to attend next year’s conference – with the opportunity to present a keynote lecture if they wish. Travel and accommodation expenses will be covered. The second and third-placed universities receive a trophy and a certificate.

Last year’s winning was Sweden’s Uppsala University with their ‘My University City’ project – #minuniversitetsstad.

The multichannel project was launched in the run-up to the 25th anniversary of Uppsala’s ‘Culture Night’, a high point in the university-city’s calendar.

Photo challenge

A photo challenge was announced via social channels and posters for people to take their best photos of what they felt was special about the city and to publish these on their Instagram accounts and tag it #minuniversitetsstad [#myuniversitycity].

A total of 1,048 contributions were submitted and the best were used in a new ‘Uppsala University Calendar 2014’

Gisella Bengtsson, Project Manager at Uppsala University, will be presenting two workshops on the background to their award-winning entry on Tuesday September 8.

Learn from each other

She said: “We are really proud at winning the EUPRIO Award and are delighted to join in for the Euprio conference in Perugia to share our award winning case.

“I’ll be joined by our social media expert Annica Alven and Director of Communication, Pernilla Björk, for the presentation.

“Our project illustrates an effective communication mix with traditional and digital channels based on target group content and participation. We hope to inspire our colleagues from all over Europe.”

This year’s judging panel is chaired by Sys Christina Vestergaard from Aarhus University in Denmark.

She said: “The EUPRIO Awards give us an opportunity to learn from each other across Europe and to pick up good ideas. “It is fun, easy and free to enter the EUPRIO Awards, but remember we can accept only one entry per university and one project per entry.

“All you need to do is complete this EUPRIO Awards entry form and email it back to the address specified before 21 August.

“You’ll also need to prepare a poster (maximum A1 size) and other supporting material that represent your campaign or project in the best way. The poster and other supporting materials will be displayed at an exhibition of entries for the Awards Jury and delegates to view at the conference prior to voting.

Entrants need to be at conference

“Any university entering the EUPRIO Awards must also have representatives attending the conference. We wouldn’t want the spotlight to fall on an empty stage when we make our presentation to the winners!

“We’re looking for entries across the whole range of the university communications mix. These could be social media campaigns, video projects or even traditional printed materials designed and used in an innovative way.

“I hope to see many entries presented at the conference and to discuss your new and creative ways of communicating with you.

“So, good luck and we’re looking forward to receiving your entry before the August 6 deadline.”

More information can be found on the EUPRIO website at http://www.euprio.eu/

* This blog first appeared on the EUPRIO website on 15 May under the headline ‘Polish up your EUPRIO Award entries’.