Future for Religious Heritage introduced the Religious Heritage Innovator of the Year competition in 2022, aiming to honor and highlight excellence within the realm of religious heritage. Each year, this award recognizes five outstanding projects that significantly contribute to the preservation, improvement, and promotion of Europe’s places of worship.

An esteemed panel of experts evaluates entries based on the values of inclusion, sustainability, resilience, innovation, and cooperation, aligning with the pillars of the European Commission’s Framework for Action on Cultural Heritage. The award will distinguish an overall winner and four finalists, whose projects will be extensively showcased by FRH as exemplary practices. These achievements will also be featured at the 2024 FRH Conference, scheduled for September 22-24, 2024, in Krakow, Poland.

The call is open until 30 November 2023 for organisations, public administrations, universities, cultural heritage professionals, academics and researchers, museums and representatives of European civil society with a project related to religious heritage to submit their applications.

The projects of the winner and the four finalists will be presented at the 2024 Future for Religious Heritage Conference. The projects of the winner and the finalists will be featured in a special publication and promoted across Europe as examples of best practices.

Download the official call here and submit your application here.