Eligibility:

• Projects of any type, from any industry, in public or private sectors are eligible.
• Projects may originate from any region.
• Projects must have been completed no more than 18 months prior to the nomination deadline.
• The Lead Nominator is not required to have PMI affiliation.
• Projects that have been previously won or been nominated for the PMI Project of the Year Award are not eligible for submission.
• Current PMI team members staff, PMI contractors, and/or PMI consultants are not eligible to apply or nominate a project for this award.
• Current PMI Board members and members of PMI Board Reporting Committees are not eligible to apply for or nominate a project for this award.

Nomination:

Candidates must submit their project under one of the three categories.

• PMI Engineering/Technology Project Award
• PMI Social Project Award
• PMI Construction/Infrastructure Project Award

The nomination package must include the following:

Essay: Story of Project Success

“How are you using project success to elevate our world?”

Write an essay (maximum 2,000 words) describing the ‘Story of Success’ of your project. Highlight the project’s customer, the challenge, and the solution.

Use the following guidance to structure your essay:

Project Challenges: What specific challenge did your project address, and why was it significant to your organization or stakeholders?

Project Success: How did your project deliver value that was worth the effort and expense, addressing both execution and outcomes? How did it demonstrate innovative thinking, adaptability, and a focus on aligning value with stakeholder expectations and broader goals?

Strategic Alignment: How did your project align with your organization’s strategic goals, mission, and long-term vision? How did it foster collaboration and partnerships to advance these objectives and strengthen relationships within your organizational ecosystem?

Project Management Excellence: How did your project utilize project management best practices to ensure efficient and structured delivery? How did the team demonstrate excellence in execution, balancing precision, adaptability, and stakeholder satisfaction to achieve project objectives?

PMI Culture in Action: How did your project reflect PMI’s values (Make It Easy, Aim Higher, Be Welcoming, Embrace Curiosity, Together We Can)? How did it promote collaboration, inclusivity, or diversity, equity, and inclusion (DE&I) throughout its lifecycle? For additional reference regarding PMI’s Culture values.

Supporting documents:

You may submit up to five (5) images to support your project story in jpg format. Any captions or explanation should be included as part of the image.

Please include a group photo of the Project Team.

You’ll need to choose a “Lead Nominator” for PMI to communicate with about the nomination, including the status of the nomination at the conclusion of the evaluation process.

Your Lead Nominator doesn’t need to be a member of or affiliated with PMI.

Complete and sign the form confirming whether you did, or did not, use any PMI trademark, logo, or copyrighted content from any PMI publication. 

Usage will require permission from PMI in the form of a permission agreement or license.

Signing of the form also gives PMI the non-exclusive right to use any submitted copyrighted materials for business purposes–press releases, marketing, promotional materials, videos, or case studies. 

If you’re not the nominee, you’ll need to make sure the nominee signs, dates, and returns the form to include in your nomination package. The form will not count toward the stated page count maximum.

Process: PMI Project of the Year Award two-step evaluation process

Step 1: All candidates applying for the PMI Project of the Year award must submit a written essay of a maximum of 2,000 words, adhering to all nomination guidelines. Submissions must be completed through the PMI Professional Awards platform.

A team of PMI volunteers and subject matter experts will review all submissions and select the finalists.

Step 2: Project finalists will proceed to a 1-hour virtual session with members of the Professional Awards Insight Team. During this session, finalists will deliver a 25-minute presentation. PMI will work with you to schedule a 1-hour time slot. This presentation should be a condensed visual representation of the “Story of Success” highlighted in their nomination package, followed by a round of Q&A.

Step 3: From these finalists, one winner for each submission category will be selected. Among those winners, the overall Project of the Year Award recipient will be selected.