Skip to main content

OpenUK Awards 2025 – Nomination criteria for each category

Open Source Software sponsored by Red Badger

Nominations are welcomed for individuals, projects or organisations working on open source software projects of any and all sizes. The software in question must be distributed on a licence that meets the Open Source Definition.

The judges will consider novel contributions to the state of the art, projects with wide adoption or impact as well as community and collaboratively developed projects, whether commercial or not. The value and impact of these contributions will be evaluated and ranked by the judges.

The individual, project or organisation must have a demonstrable and impactful UK presence in the preceding 12 months and in the case of enterprises should be a UK registered company – this should be made clear in the application.

Open Hardware

Nominations are welcomed for projects and organisations working on openly-licensed hardware projects of any size. This category includes all forms of hardware from CPU instructions set architectures and electronics through to build plans or specifications for real world objects that might be fabricated by hand, using machine tools, 3D printing, etc.

The judges will consider novel contributions to the state of the art, projects with wide adoption or impact as well as community and collaboratively developed projects, whether commercial or not. The value and impact of these contributions will be evaluated and ranked by the judges.

The individual, project or organisation must have a demonstrable and impactful UK presence in the preceding 12 months and in the case of enterprises should be a UK registered company – this should be made clear in the application.

Open Data sponsored by ODI

Nominations are welcomed for projects and organisations working on an openly-licensed data project or associated policy or legal work that encourages and supports open data ecosystems.

The judges will consider novel contributions to the state of the art, projects with wide adoption or impact as well as community and collaboratively developed projects, whether commercial or not. The value and impact of these contributions will be evaluated and ranked by the judges.

The individual, project or organisation must have a demonstrable and impactful UK presence in the preceding 12 months and in the case of enterprises should be a UK registered company – this should be made clear in the application.

AI sponsored by AutoGPT

Nominations are welcomed for projects and organisations working on openly-licensed machine learning, AI projects, openly licensed software, openly licensed deep learning models, openly licensed training data and openly licensed extensions or improvements to proprietary (but available at no cost for non-commercial use) AI systems and models.

The judges will consider novel contributions to the state of the art, projects with wide adoption or impact as well as community and collaboratively developed projects, whether commercial or not. The value and impact of these contributions will be evaluated and ranked by the judges.

The individual, project or organisation must have a demonstrable and impactful UK presence in the preceding 12 months and in the case of enterprises should be a UK registered company – this should be made clear in the application.

Governance sponsored by Iain G Mitchell KC

Nominations are welcomed for projects and organisations in the Open Technology ecosystem in any of open source software, open hardware, open data, or which uses open standards and open innovation making a contribution within the Legal and Policy sector that encourages and supports Open Technology. This can be any contribution, including pro-bono work, drafting or advice on legal documents, company policy, government policy, open source strategy, enabling open source and breaking down barriers to adopting tools from open source ecosystems.

The judges will consider novel contributions to the state of the art, projects with wide adoption or impact as well as community and collaboratively developed projects, whether commercial or not. The value and impact of these contributions will be evaluated and ranked by the judges.

The individual, project or organisation must have a demonstrable and impactful UK presence in the preceding 12 months and in the case of enterprises should be a UK registered company – this should be made clear in the application.

Security sponsored by Control Plane

Nominations are welcomed for projects and organisations making significant contributions to the security of open source software whether through project, running bug bounty programmes for open source software, impacting on best practices in security or other significant contributions to the security of open source software. The software in question must be distributed on a licence approved by the Open Source Initiative. This can be any contribution including project leadership, code, documentation, support, advocacy, promoting awareness or encouraging open and secure practices from others.

The judges will consider novel contributions to the state of the art, projects with wide adoption or impact as well as community and collaboratively developed projects, whether commercial or not. The value and impact of these contributions will be evaluated and ranked by the judges.

The individual, project or organisation must have a demonstrable and impactful UK presence in the preceding 12 months and in the case of enterprises should be a UK registered company – this should be made clear in the application.

Young Person sponsored by Cyberark

Nominations are open for young individuals who have demonstrated outstanding work in an individual capacity within the Open Technology ecosystem across open source software, open hardware, open data, or which uses open standards and open innovation. This includes forging ahead and offering a unique contribution to a project or a community, project leadership, code, documentation, artwork, support, promoting awareness, good governance or encouraging open practices by others – the full gambit of contributions.

The judges will consider novel contributions to the state of the art, projects with wide adoption or impact as well as community and collaboratively developed projects, whether commercial or not. The value and impact of these contributions will be evaluated and ranked by the judges.

Nominees must be under 25 on 10 July 2025 and do not need to be engaged in a programme of education.

The projects contributed to may or may not be done as part of a programme of education but must be open source on a licence that meets the Open Source Definition.

All individuals nominated must have been UK resident for all of the preceding 12 months.

Community sponsored by Arm

Nominations are welcomed for projects and organisations across the Open Technology ecosystem in any of open source software, open hardware, open data, which uses open standards and open innovation or is licensed on an Open Source Definition licence and that demonstrate outstanding contribution and impact to Community which may include but not only related to Diversity, Equity and Inclusion.

This includes solving unique challenges, emphasising transparency of opportunities, mentorship, coaching and nurturing the creation of diverse, inclusive and neurodiverse communities and more.

The judges will consider novel contributions to the state of the art, projects with wide adoption or impact as well as community and collaboratively developed projects, whether commercial or not. The value and impact of these contributions will be evaluated and ranked by the judges.

This can be any contribution including creation of engagement programmes, leadership, support, promoting awareness or encouraging D&I practices within the wider community. The value and impact of these contributions will be evaluated and ranked by the judges.

The individual, project or organisation must have a demonstrable and impactful UK presence and in the case of enterprises should be a UK registered company – this should be made clear in the application.

Individual

Nominations are open for individuals who have demonstrated outstanding work in an individual capacity within the Open Technology ecosystem across any of open source software, open hardware, open data, or which uses open standards and open innovation. This includes forging ahead and offering a unique contribution to a project or a community, project leadership, code, documentation, artwork, support, promoting awareness, good governance or encouraging open practices by others – the full gambit of contributions.

The judges will consider novel contributions to the state of the art, projects with wide adoption or impact as well as community and collaboratively developed projects, whether commercial or not. The value and impact of these contributions will be evaluated and ranked by the judges.

All individuals nominated must have been UK resident for all of the preceding 12 months.

Scroll to top of the content