The shortlisting stage
Following the closing date for submissions, the Judging Panel reviews all the entries and selects a shortlist of six to eight candidates. The Panel does not normally comment on submissions that are not shortlisted. However, if the primary reason for not selecting a submission is that it is too early to judge the commercial success of the project, applicants will be informed of this and invited to resubmit the project in a subsequent year. The results of the shortlisting process, successful or otherwise, remain confidential.
For those submissions that are shortlisted, the Panel may request additional information on particular aspects of the project. They may request that this information be provided in writing or at the subsequent site visit.
Site visits
Two members of the Judging Panel will visit each of the shortlisted organisations in Monday 11 March – Friday 29 March. Where possible, one member will be chosen for their expertise in the field, the other will often be an expert in an unrelated field.
The person named as the organisation’s contact should be available to help organise the visit and should ensure that the individual nominees will be available for the visit.
More details of the objectives and requirements of the site visit will be provided to the shortlisted organisations.
The final stage
Following the site visit, the case for each shortlisted entry will be made to the full Panel by the two judges who visited that organisation. As a result of this process, three finalists are then chosen. The Panel does not normally comment on submissions that are not chosen as finalists. However, if the panel felt that a particular submission would have been considerably strengthened by further commercial success, the applicant will be informed of this and invited to resubmit the project in a subsequent year.
The whole Judging Panel then visits all the finalists in turn. Again, the person named as the organisation’s contact should be available to help organise the visit and should ensure that the individual nominees and the head of the organisation will be available for the visit. Site visits for 2024 will take place on weekdays between Friday 10 May - Thursday 16 May.
When all the finalists have been visited, the judges meet to decide the winner.
The winner
The winner of the MacRobert Award 2024 will be announced at the Academy’s Awards Dinner in July 2024.
The winning team of the MacRobert Award will also win an exclusive weekend at The MacRobert Trust’s multiple award-winning Country House Hotel in the heart of the MacRobert Estate in Royal Deeside, Aberdeenshire – Douneside House. This is a special addition to winning the award and goes back to where the award first began on the estate of Lady MacRobert, who the award is named after. This exclusive weekend would take place in December 2024, arriving on a Friday and departing Sunday morning. Up to 58 guests can stay (or 26 if the rooms are single occupancy). This will include dinners, accommodation, and breakfasts (more details of the prize will be provided to the winning team). This exclusive weekend will take place between 6 - 8 December.