Categories
IPA’s Industry Innovation Champion
This flagship category within of the BCIA initiatives awards will recognise an individual client, consultant, designer, architect or contractor that is delivering innovation that is creating current and potential for future impact within their business or a specific division to improve their day to day work, as well as the outcomes of the projects they are working on.
Supported by
Recognising successfully delivered project outcomes
Commercial Property Project of the Year
This category recognises outstanding new commercial and mixed used buildings where the primary function/focus is on providing high quality lettable space.
Cultural & Leisure Project of the Year
This category recognises the value of exceptional buildings and facilities in enhancing communities and contributing to their health and wellbeing.
Environmental Project of the Year
This category recognises projects that are delivering environmental improvements for local communities and regions by mitigating the impact of extreme weather and climate change on people, properties and business.
Residential Infrastructure Development of the Year
This category recognises the value of exceptional buildings in meeting Britain’s housing needs and the infrastructure constructed to support those developments. The category is open to all projects where housing/accommodation provision is the primary purpose. The entire project does not have to be completed but the phase of work that the entry centres on must be complete.
Social Infrastructure Project of the Year
This category recognises schools, colleges, hospitals, law courts and other civic buildings that contribute towards improved social service provision in the UK. These buildings must be open for public use.
Transport Project of the Year
This category recognises transport projects that are enhancing capacity, providing better connectivity or improving helping to improve reliability of local, regional or national transport services.
Upgrade & Renewal Project of the Year
This category recognises maintenance and renewal projects in any sector that may be standalone, one-off projects or form part of an ongoing operations or maintenance programme.
Utility Project of the Year
This category recognises projects that are contributing to the resilience, reliability, affordability and quality of the UK’s communications, energy, clean water or wastewater networks.
Sharing best practice during project delivery
Carbon Net Zero Initiative of the Year
This category will recognise projects that are leading the field with reducing embodied carbon during the construction of new infrastructure or buildings to support the government’s target to be carbon net zero by 2050. The initiative could be an alternative design, use of new materials or innovative equipment to reduce energy consumption during the project.

Community Impact Initiative of the Year
This category recognises projects that have improved the lives and prospects of the communities that live close to the project area.
We will be looking for project teams that can demonstrate an understanding and recognition of the importance of working with local communities. These teams will have gone the extra mile to have not just sought to mitigate the impact of construction on the community to provide true outreach in the form of engagement with schools and community groups and potentially offered training and employment.
Digital Initiative of the Year
This category recognises projects that are driving the use of smart technologies in construction to improve design, delivery or safety.
Environment & Sustainability Initiative of the Year
This award seeks to recognise project teams that have introduced a specific project-based initiative that is targeting a lower carbon solution, specifically boosting the whole life sustainability of the project or is improving environmental sensitivity.
Health, Safety & Wellbeing Initiative of the Year
This category seeks to recognise project teams that understand the importance of creating a safe and healthy working environment and strive to improve wellbeing of those delivering the work. Judges will be particularly keen to see examples of initiatives that tackle mental health.
Partnership Initiative of the Year
This award seeks to recognise project teams that are changing ways of working to become integrated teams and fully collaborate within the supply chain to deliver better outcomes for all those involved in the construction industry.
Product Innovation of the Year
This category recognises an innovation in products for design or construction that are deployed on specific projects and that are boosting overall project outcomes.
Productivity Initiative of the Year
This category recognises initiatives that aim to improve productivity in project delivery. In this context improving productivity means improving the efficiency and effectiveness of the following processes: concept design, detailed design, construction, procurement, project management.
Temporary Works Initiative of the Year
This category recognises the key role played by good temporary works design in construction.
NIC’s Design Principles Award
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This category will champion projects that are exemplar in terms of design and judge them against the National Infrastructure Commission’s (NIC) Design Group’s four key principles of climate, people, place and value. Supported by:
This category will champion projects that are exemplar in terms of design and judge them against the National Infrastructure Commission’s (NIC) Design Group’s four key principles of climate, people, place and value. The Design Principles for National Infrastructure were set out by the NIC’s Design Group in order to drive industry improvements. The NIC Design Principles Award will recognise a winner in the BCIA project categories that most closely adheres to the four key principles The Design Group believes the legacy of these schemes will be judged on how they succeed in responding creatively to the needs of climate change, the environment and communities. NIC Design Group chair Sadie Morgan said: “We are moving into a seminal decade for our infrastructure and the design of every major project should celebrate our nation’s ambition for flourishing communities and an enriched environment. “By embedding excellent design into planning and delivery from day one and encouraging everyone in the sector to embrace it as part of their role, we can ensure we leave a proud inheritance that inspires people and helps the UK achieve our climate targets.” Key criteria: Climate - Infrastructure must help set the trajectory for the UK to achieve net zero greenhouse gas emissions by 2050 or sooner and be capable of adapting to climate change. Projects should demonstrate how they look beyond legislative boundaries to mitigate climate change and provide methods for measuring whole life emissions. People - Projects should be human scale, instinctive to use and seek opportunities to improve the quality of life for people who live and work nearby. Projects should show that have found opportunities to improve the quality of life for people who live and work nearby and have taken steps to mitigate negative impacts. Places - Schemes should provide a sense of identity for communities, supporting the natural and built environment and enriching ecosystems. Projects should show how they benefit the natural and built environment and made improvements beyond the site boundary to sustain local ecosystems and support local plans for growth and investment. Value - Value should be added beyond the main purpose of the infrastructure, solving problems well and achieving multiple benefits. Projects must detail how they have bought different professions and skills together from the outset to enable a ‘systems approach’; that have used a shared understanding between different disciplines to resolve multiple problems and in doing so provided multiple benefits. Judges drawn from the Design Group will select a winner for this category from entries completing the NIC category question within the Environmental Project of the Year, Upgrade and Renewal Project of the Year, Transport Project of the Year and Utility Project of the Year entry forms. |
Non-enterable Categories
Initiative of the Year Award
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This category recognises the most outstanding smaller projects, to the final out-turn cost of £10M for less. All projects shortlisted in their category are eligible for this award, which will be judged by lead judges from each category represented on the shortlist |
Project of the Year Award
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This category is the best of the best; the shortlist will be formed of the eight winning excellence in project outcomes categories. The winner is quite simply the most outstanding project of the year and will be decided by the panel of judges, primarily taking into account the scores awarded for project outcome. Sponsored by |
Small Project of the Year Award
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This category is the best of the best; the shortlist will be formed of the eight winning best practice in project delivery categories. The winner is quite simply the most outstanding initiative of the year and will be decided by the panel of judges, primarily taking into account the scores awarded for potential industry impact. |