The HESPA awards are an annual celebration of the work of our members and our sector. The awards aim to highlight excellence, innovation and dedication, posing an opportunity to support the professionalisation and recognition of strategic planners, while motivating colleagues and boosting morale.
Making a nomination
The Awards are open to GOLD members of HESPA. You can nominate either yourself or your team, or other individuals and other teams, from either inside or outside your own institution. The nomination should be seconded by a Director of Planning or equivalent senior person, from either your own or another institution. Please note, the individual/team may be contacted to let them know they have been nominated for an award unless you ask us not to notify them.
The deadline for submission of nominations for the HESPA 26 Awards is noon on Wednesday 2 December 2026.
Every nomination earns a free place on a HESPA training course for you or a colleague from your institution (to be used within a year).
Award winners will be announced at the awards dinner during our annual conference in February 2027.
The awards for 2027 are in the following categories:
The Paul Youngson Award honours the memory of an exceptional planner and respected colleague. The award recognises an individual who has demonstrated outstanding contribution and impact in the field of strategy and planning. This might be an individual who has had an outstanding impact over the course of their career or a rising star, someone new to your institution who has made a significant difference already.
Help us celebrate the achievements of those who continue to make a meaningful contribution to strategy and planning.
Nomination form for the "Paul Youngson award"
If you have any questions please contact Lisa.
We want to celebrate change and the planners who make it happen. This award is for an individual or team who have improved ways of working or enhanced institutional effectiveness. Applying knowledge, tools and data from the planner’s sphere, this could include process improvement, operating model redesign, governance enhancements or cultural change projects. Creating sustainable change will likely involve collaborative working or a cultural shift.
Nomination form for the "Transformation award"
If you have any questions please contact Lisa.
Tell us about an intervention which has made a difference to the framing, delivery or impact of your institution’s strategy. This could be an insight that has informed strategy development or a resource or process that has enabled strategy delivery. Planners are involved in a range of activities, the strategy involved could be institutional or could be one with a tighter focus like research, EDI, risk or AI.
Nomination form for the "Impact on Strategy award"
If you have any questions please contact Lisa.
Planners are custodians of information, whether institutional data, policy analysis, or intelligence analysis. Tell us a story about how new or newly applied processes, framings or methods of presenting information have influenced thinking and approach at a local or national level.
Nomination form for the "Insight to Influence award"
If you have any questions please contact Lisa.
You can read all about our wonderful winners from previous awards below.
