Rules

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I. Objective

The Single European Sky Awards - 2016 Edition (SES Awards) is a contest organised by the European Commission (Commission) with the aim to reward, encourage and give visibility to “first movers” in implementing components of the Single European Sky (SES) and to those stakeholders that achieve the highest levels of performance in providing air navigation or air transport services contributing to the SES performance objectives.
The SES Awards also aim to inspire further SES implementation initiatives and to contribute to raising a more general public awareness on the SES, on ATM and its impact on air transport.

II. General conditions

DG MOVE shall ensure that the integrity of the information provided in the applications is preserved and that the protection of personal data is ensured in accordance with the requirements of Regulation (EC) No 45/2001.
The contest process is managed by the European Commission's Directorate-General for Mobility and Transport (DG MOVE) - Single European Sky Unit.
By submitting an application, candidates accept all the provisions in the present Rules for participation.
The Commission will assign up to five SES Awards for 2016 in any of the areas covered by SES, in particular: performance; safety; technology; interoperability; change management.
A SES Award can be conferred to one or more individual or groupings of candidates. However, an individual candidate or a grouping of candidates can receive only one SES Award in a given year.
The SES Awards will not be assigned for specific commercial products.
A SES Award consists of a trophy and the visibility that winning the award gives to the initiative and the candidate through web, press release and social networks channels of DG MOVE. There is no monetary prize and winning a SES Award does not provide any financial support to the selected candidates or give any right to financial support from any European Union funding programme.
The winning candidates will be announced at the award ceremony. However, for organisational purposes, the Commission reserves the right to inform the winning candidates before the ceremony.
Candidates are aware and agree that information provided in their applications can be published by the Commission or its services on their web portals and social network channels, be presented at the SES Awards ceremony, be mentioned in press releases or other means of communication for the purpose of promoting the initiatives and the SES Awards contest.
The Commission may decide to cancel the contest, in particular where its objectives cannot be fulfilled or where the candidates who do not comply with the conditions for participation would qualify as the winners.
The Commission may withdraw a SES Award from winners who are found to have made false declarations, or committed irregularities or fraud.
Candidates are solely liable in case of claim relating to the activities carried out in the framework of the contest.
Any dispute that cannot be settled amicably shall be submitted to the jurisdiction of the General Court or, on appeal, the Court of Justice of the European Union.
Union law is the law which applies to the contest, complemented, where necessary, by Belgian law.

III. Exclusion criteria

Candidates and candidate initiatives must be in order with any obligations under the Single European Sky legal framework.
Candidates who are found to have made false declarations, or committed irregularities or fraud shall be excluded from the contest.

IV. Eligibility criteria

Any individual or groupings of civil or military entities belonging to any of the following categories of stakeholders can participate in the contest :
- Airspace users ;
- Airport operators;
- Air navigation service providers;
- Meteorological services providers;
- Airborne & ground equipment manufacturers;
- Entities established within or contributing to the SES framework, such as: National Supervisory Authorities, the Performance Review Body, SESAR Joint Undertaking, SESAR Deployment Manager, SESAR deployment framework partnership, Network Manager, EASA, ICB, Expert group on the social dimension of the SES, European Defence Agency ;
- Standardisation bodies.
Individuals or organisations can also participate together (for example if they have a common initiative).
Services and staff of the European Commission or of the Innovation and Networks Executive Agency are not eligible for the contest.
The candidates must be based in one of the European Union or Eurocontrol Member States or in a State associated to the SES.
Candidate initiatives must be on-going or have been concluded within twenty-four months prior to the submission of the applications.

V. Award criteria

The SES Awards will be assigned to outstanding projects and initiatives that provide the best examples of successful implementation in the areas mentioned in the previous section.
In selecting the winning initiatives, the jury shall evaluate and score the applications on the basis of the following award criteria (Max 2 points per criterion):
1. Contribution to increasing capacity of ATM systems;
2. Contribution to increasing safety of ATM systems;
3. Contribution to reducing ATM costs;
4. Contribution to reducing the impact of air transport on the environment;
5. Early implementation ("First mover");
6. Potential to be replicated over the ATM network;
7. Innovative aspects;
8. Promoting partnerships;
9. Contribution to change management;
10. Promoting SES and SESAR beyond the Union’s boundaries.
Candidates must demonstrate in their applications that they comply with at least five of the above-mentioned criteria.

VI. The SES Awards Jury

The SES Awards Jury is composed of:
- An "Experts panel" that will evaluate and score the candidate initiatives based on the published selection and award criteria and shall make a recommendation to the "Award committee". The expert panel is composed of European Commission staff.
- An "Awarding panel" that will take the final decision on assigning the five awards, based on the Expert panel's evaluation and recommendation. The awarding panel is composed of senior officials of the European Commission.
All the members of the jury will have the same weight in scoring the applications.

VII. Applications

Candidates must submit their applications by 31 January 2016 (midnight) through the on-line forms accessible through the SES Awards web page (see below). Applications submitted after this deadline shall not be accepted.
In order to be eligible, applications must include:
1. the coordinates of the candidates and all their contact details;
2. a short description of the initiative;
3. an explanation on how the initiative complies with each award criterion.
The Candidates are responsible for informing the Commission of any sensitive information they do not wish to be published.
Candidates shall also provide PDFs, photos/infographics, links to videos, PPT, or other type material that will be used to present their initiative on this web site and at the awards ceremony. This material will not be considered when evaluating the award criteria.
The names of the candidates and a brief description of their proposals will be published on the SES Awards web portal.

VIII. Awards ceremony

The SES Awards ceremony will be held at the World ATM Congress – 2016, in Madrid, on 8 March 2016. The exact time and location will be notified in due time on this web portal.
The SES Awards will be conferred by a Member or by a senior staff of the European Commission. The winning initiatives will be presented during the ceremony using the material and information provided in the application file.
Candidates are requested to be present or represented at the awards ceremony.

IX. Communications

Any communication of request for information can be sent to:

MOVE-E2-SINGLE-SKY-UNITec [dot] europa [dot] eu (DG MOVE – Single European Sky Unit)