Award criteria

To be eligible, the applicant must work or plan to work in the heritage field, be admitted to the programme concerned, not have received more than two scholarships and present a clear professional project. Nationals of all States may apply, with priority for States whose national income is below average.

Employees of auction houses or galleries are eligible only exceptionally, for a partial scholarship.

Motivation and project count for 30%: the applicant explains what they want to learn and how they will apply it. Expected impact for 25%: how many people will be reached, what concrete results. The situation of the country or institution for 25%, career for 12% and contribution to parity and diversity for 8%.

Each criterion is scored from 0 to 5. A file must obtain at least 60% of the points to be selected.

Files are read anonymously for the motivation and impact criteria: the applicant's name and country are masked. The examiners then meet as a committee to rank the files. In the event of a tie, the situation of the country prevails.

The committee has nine members: trainers, former trainees, representatives of Member States and independent experts. A member does not sit on a file from their own country.

An unsuccessful applicant may ask for an explanation of the decision and lodge an appeal within fifteen days. The appeal is examined by a committee member who did not take part in the first decision. It concerns procedure, not the assessment of the project.

Files not selected may be resubmitted at the next session, with useful additions.

A good file is precise, honest and concrete. It describes a real need, a plan for application and a way of spreading what has been learned. Letters of recommendation, short and sincere, carry more weight than conventional praise.

Applicants do well to ask their employer to commit to freeing up time for training and to valuing the return.