News
Open for applications: 2025 IIOE Higher Education Digitalisation Pioneer Case Award
The 2025 IIOE Higher Education Digitalisation Pioneer Case Award hosted by the International Centre for Higher Education Innovation under the auspices of UNESCO (UNESCO-ICHEI) is now open for applications from universities worldwide! It aims to recognise their proactive exploration, innovation, and implementation in the field of higher education digitalisation.
The award sets up a specific theme every two years, and rewards teams and individuals who have made outstanding contributions to further promoting digital transformation, improving the quality of higher education teaching and learning, achieving sustainable development, and supporting their exploration in promoting higher education innovation.
Pioneer Case Award
- Encouraging Educational Innovation: The Pioneer Case Award highlights institutions and individuals who lead transformative digital initiatives to enhance teaching and learning experiences.
- Promoting Good Practices: By showcasing successful digitalisation strategies, the award facilitates knowledge exchange and collaboration among higher education institutions globally.
- Advancing Educational Goals: The award supports the achievement of sustainable development objectives by leveraging digital technologies to improve the quality and accessibility of education worldwide.
2025 Award Theme & Categories:
The theme of this year's Pioneer Case Award is 鈥淚IOE Ecosystem-driven Promising Practices: Empowering Workforce, Innovation, and Collaboration鈥, to discover teams and individuals who are making progress utilising the IIOE ecosystem to drive digital transformation in higher education.
Category 1: Developing Digital and AI Competencies through IIOE Micro-certification
Category 2: Enabling localised digital empowerment initiatives through IIOE National Centres
Category 3: Leveraging Smart Classroom Operations for Teaching and Learning Innovation and Excellence
Category 4: Strengthening Global Industry-university Collaboration for Higher Education Digital Empowerment
- Registration Deadline [Extended]: 30 May 2025
- Application Submission Deadline [Extended]: 15 June 2025
- Awards: 10 Higher Education Institution (HEI) awards + 10 enterprise honorary recognitions (CNY 70,000 or equivalent USD per award for HEI awardees)
- Application Portal:
- 2023 Winning Cases:
Important Dates锛
- Jan 6, 2025: Award Theme Announcement.
- Jan 6-May 30, 2025: Registration Phase
- May 31-June 15, 2025: Application Submission Phase
- June 16 - August 15, 2025: Application Review Phase
- August 15 - August 31, 2025: Award Winner Public Notice
- September, 2025: Award Ceremony
Requirements:
Eligible applicants must fill in the application form and upload relevant supporting materials through the IIOE online platform before the application deadline. Submitted documents need to include:
- Application form, including the project introduction, implementation plan, evidence and impact of implementation
- Recommendation letter, signed by at least 1 expert in the award discipline or leadership from the project institution recognising the practice鈥檚 validity, and/or alignment with the institutional, regional or national priorities.
Disqualifications include but are not limited to the following:
- Plagiarised materials: cases of plagiarising other people's achievements or works in the application materials.
- False application: False information, falsified data or falsified facts in the application materials.
- Incomplete application: The application materials do not meet the application requirements, or are missing required information, etc.
- Duplicated application: Applications submitted multiple times will only be considered once based on the latest submission date.
- Exceeding the scope of application: The application project does not belong to the scope of evaluation and is inconsistent with the evaluation theme and objectives of this award.
To read more:
Application page:
2023 Winning Cases:
