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Endesa Foundation logo at its offices in Madrid.
- From today, 23 September, and until 15 December, the registration period will remain open so that schools and students of Primary, Secondary, Baccalaureate and Middle Level Vocational Training from all over Spain can present their nominations.
- More than 126,000 students and 751 educational centres from all over Spain have already participated in these Awards since their launch in 2016, presenting their ecological and environmental entrepreneurship and innovation initiatives.
- The 2020-2021 nominations evaluation team will pay special attention to the creativity of participating teams in predicting the impact of the pandemic on their projects.
The Endesa Foundation has opened the registration period for the 5th edition of its Educational Eco-innovation Awards, a project promoted in collaboration with the European Society and Education Foundation.
The objective of these awards is to promote the environmental interest of the students in these educational centres throughout Spain, promoting responsibility, commitment and cooperation in the preservation of their surroundings.
Begoña Muñoz de Verger, Project Director of the Endesa Foundation, stressed that “since its launch in 2016, more than 126,000 young students from 751 educational centres throughout Spain have participated in these Awards, contributing ideas and attitudes which are creative, innovative and committed to the environment. From the Endesa Foundation, we highlight the efforts of students and teachers and thank them in advance for their participation in this fifth edition”.
The Educational Eco-innovation Awards were created as a result of the “ Endesa Foundation Ecobarometer. Ecological culture and education ”, a social research study carried out by both Foundations, the result of which revealed the need to strengthen the environmental knowledge, attitudes, behaviour and values of young Spanish people.
This Ecobarometer will be carried out again in the coming months to detect the changes in young people's perceptions that have occurred since then and its results will be made public in 2021.
On presenting this edition, Mercedes Esteban Villar, vice president of Society and Education, highlighted the high and increasing pedagogical and educational value of the Eco-innovation Awards. This is because, she stated, “each project is a substantial and transversal contribution to the curriculum of its stage and ensures that each centre stands out. All nominees are acquiring a greater competence in terms of approach, demonstrating their ability to combine knowledge, behaviour, attitudes and values of responsibility and solidarity in the care and preservation of the immediate environment”.
In the 2019/2020 academic year, educational centres' participation increased by 69% compared to the first edition, thus reflecting the growing interest of students in environmental education. In all, 374 applications were submitted from centres throughout Spain in one of its three categories: 'What is Nature for you?', 'My creative solution to an environmental problem' and 'How would you improve your environment?'. Of these, despite the complicated and exceptional circumstances arising from COVID-19, a total of 118 were finally able to proceed to the evaluation phase.
In anticipation that this year's educational centres and the nominees will again be affected by the pandemic, the bases of this 5th edition include especially the evaluation of the creative effort of teachers and students to overcome these difficulties in the development and realisation of the Projects.
Evolution of the number of students
1st Edition: 17.071
2nd Edition: 24.115
3rd Edition: 33.767
4th Edition: 51.326
Cumulative: 126.279
So far, the winners of the four editions have mainly focused on topics such as sustainability, conservation of wildlife and nature, recycling and reducing plastics through awareness campaigns, and responsibility for energy saving.
The three winning projects in the fourth edition belonged to educational centres in Castilla y León –two of them– and Andalusia; in turn, the other four finalists came from the Valencian Community, Murcia and the Autonomous Community of Madrid. In addition, a centre in Castilla-La Mancha received a special mention in Category 3 for the social impact of its project.
To learn more about the winning projects, you can access information through this link: Winners 4th Edition
The prize for the Awards for each of the three categories consists of a trophy for each finalist, the nationwide dissemination of their project and a monetary award to continue developing their environmental initiative. In Category 1 and Category 2, a prize of EUR 2,000 will be awarded to the winning centre in each category, and in Category 3, a prize of EUR 4,000 will be awarded to the winning project.
The registration of candidatures will be carried out exclusively online by filling in the form available on the Awards website, following the instructions contained therein and in the legal bases, in which the format requirements and evaluation criteria are also detailed.
The registration period for candidatures begins this Wednesday 23 September, and will end on Tuesday 15 December.
About the Endesa Foundation
The main goal of the Endesa Foundation, chaired by Juan Sánchez-Calero, is to contribute to social development through educational, training for employment, environmental and cultural projects.
The Foundation's educational projects are fundamentally aimed at fostering innovation in education at all levels and promoting academic excellence at the university level through grants, scholarships and chairs.
Training for employment projects focus on promoting the talent of people at risk of social exclusion, young entrepreneurs with limited resources and professionals over 50 years of age.
Its environmental projects are primarily focused on promoting education, the ecological culture and energy efficiency.
Among its cultural projects, the most notable are the illumination of artistic monuments, the conservation and dissemination of the historical industrial heritage of the Spanish electricity sector and collaboration with top-level Spanish cultural bodies.
The Endesa Foundation runs and funds programmes and activities to provide humanitarian, health, social, economic or material aid in extraordinary situations such as health crises, natural catastrophes and similar.
For more information, access the Endesa Foundation website.
About the European Society and Education Foundation
The European Society and Education Foundation is a private and independent entity that promotes research and debates on the multiple aspects that make up the strategic role of education as a foundation for the progress and development of democratic societies.
Through its research department, the Institute of Educational and Social Studies promotes studies, debates and analysis on current education that are approached from an interdisciplinary perspective. It has an area dedicated to the promotion of environmental education from a comprehensive ecological perspective.