The AUDE Awards
The AUDE Awards are an annual highlight for the association, giving us a chance to focus on some of the fantastic estates and facilities teams, and their projects, that contribute so significantly to the success of our universities, year-round. The awards highlight and celebrate the exceptional achievements of estates and facilities professionals in the higher education sector.
2026 will bring the 12th AUDE Awards and will be celebrated at the AUDE Annual Conference Gala Dinner & Awards, at Royal Armouries Museum Leeds on Wednesday, 23 April 2026.
What we look for each year
AUDE look for teams, projects and individuals who have made a significant contribution to enhancing excellence and ensuring university estates provide best value to support the institutional mission and promote professionalism, efficiency and effectiveness. The awards provide an excellent opportunity to showcase sector achievements and allow everyone to learn from the best practice taking place in our institutions today.
Awards categories & judging criteria
For 2026, we have nine awards which will be presented during the Awards Ceremony. You can explore the award categories and judging criteria to get a full overview of each award and how they will be assessed.
Entry process
Submissions for the 2026 awards now open - deadline for entries is midnight on Monday, 12 January 2026.
You can find all the relevant information on how to enter the awards along the relevant application form, are available under:
Entry process - AUDE Member Awards
Entry process - Supplier of the Year Awards
For any queries, please get in touch with Ruth Tittle, ruth@aude.ac.uk.
We asked former winners of the AUDE Awards why they decided to get involved. Here’s what they told us.
There’s real pride involved in winning an AUDE Award. It reminds us that we are part of the wider university estates community and that we can share ideas together that benefit us all. It’s great to be able to showcase projects big and small in this way. The Awards are judged by peers and that makes the recognition really meaningful. There aren’t many opportunities to celebrate achievements in this kind of way and so it is fantastic to be able to formally recognise the teams’ achievement and thank them in this way.
The University of Warwick
Winning an AUDE Award is recognition of the collective hard work that the team normally ‘just do’, regardless of circumstance and whatever challenge is thrown at them. To be appreciated externally helps to reinforce that the team has gone that one step further and that this is recognised. Entering for the AUDE Awards is a great way of testing your progress and ambition against others in the sector. Ultimately that helps us all by demonstrating what the standard is, so that we can all improve together. The Awards give you permission to present openly the talent and hard work that goes into delivering a first-class estates and facilities service.
Sheffield Hallam University
It has been great for our FM Team to be recognised for all their hard work in making a difference to our customers and the wider community including potential future students. Often we don't shout out about all the excellent stuff that we do, so when the AUDE Awards criteria fits our projects we think it is a great place to share our achievements. Winning an AUDE Award gives us a chance to celebrate success.
Edge Hill University
