Going strong for more than 40 years now, the CIOB Awards and the highly coveted Construction Manager of the Year Award have been presented to some of the most talented and accomplished individuals in our industry.
But each year, as projects get completed and new people come into the construction sector, we get questions from those who want to be recognised for their achievements or who want to nominate someone they’ve worked with.
So for those who aren’t familiar with the CIOB Awards, we’ve held some drop-in sessions to talk about the process, giving guidance on how to submit a nomination.
Recently we held a session to offer support to those that had already started an application for the 2025 CIOB Awards. We had some great questions and I wanted to share a couple that really got people thinking.

Please can you explain the level of detail needed for the CMYA category, there are a lot of questions to answer but in how much detail does it need to be answered?

What a great question this was and once I’d explained what becoming a CMYA finalist meant it was met with great enthusiasm.
You will be asked for details on your project by providing a response to the 12 questions which make up the project report. Unless stated, the word limit to each question is 600 words.
It’s also worth noting that those who go on to become a CMYA category finalist have the opportunity to apply for CIOB Chartered membership. This is comparable to a bachelor’s degree and is internationally recognised. The score sheet for the candidate interviews is written in line with the professional review criteria.

How many nominations does a winning candidate get?

This took us a while to fully understand the question but once we did this again was a really great question.
There is no requirement for multiple nominations to be submitted for the same project and no requirement for votes from the public.
Our Awards are judged and scored by Chartered Members of the CIOB with specialist knowledge of the management of construction projects.

Part 1: Initial Paper Sift (all categories)
The initial paper sift is based on the criteria noted on the application form. Any candidate without the full information as stated on the application form and website will be discarded at this initial stage.

Part 2: Project Visit (CMYA only)
Each nominated project will be visited by a Judge who is one of the panel allocated to the specific Award category.

Part 3: Candidate Interview (CMYA only)
Interviews will take place at the CIOB office in London, with a panel consisting of up to 2 judges and a Chairperson.

Rising Star, Team Award, Client Award, Sustainability Award & EDI Award follow the same initial paper sift but do not have a project visit. These awards are judged and scored based on the detail on the application form, although in the event of very close placing between the entrants, an interview might be arranged.
What made us think more about this question was the fact that our judging process might not be completely clear to smaller companies who are new to our awards – we wondered if people might have been put off entering if they felt they wouldn’t stand a chance collecting the nominations or votes against bigger organisations. This is far from what our awards are about – our awards stand out from others as we recognise the individual project managers for their talent and contribution to the built environment by the judges scoring, not by the number of nominations they receive.
The CIOB Awards team are on hand to offer any support we can with the process and we are delighted when we receive such great questions – and hopefully we can motivate you to enter the awards, too.

It might also help to read a little about previous projects that made it to the CMYA shortlist – here’s the Construction Management write-up of the projects that took gold and silver in the commercial category, with the gold winner in the this category going on to take the 2024 title.

Looking forward to receiving your nominations – and if you need any advice on the process, just get in touch.