MEDEA Awards

Recognising and Rewarding Excellence in the use of media to support learning and teaching.

The MEDEA Awards 2025 is now closed. The finalists will be announced very soon, towards the end of April. We sincerely thank all participants for their submissions—this year, we received 137 entries! The Awards Ceremony will take place during the Media & Learning Conference: “Educational media that works” on 18 June 2025, in Leuven, Belgium.

If you have any questions, feel free to reach out to us: secretariat@medea-awards.com

👉 Announcement MEDEA AWARDS 2025 Call for Entries (Press Release)

Participation Guidelines 2026

Before submitting your entry describing a multimedia production, resource, process, tool or service, we strongly recommend that you read the Judging Criteria to understand what the judges are specifically looking for and the criteria they will use when judging your submission, as well as the Terms & Conditions of submission, where you will find the rules for participation in the MEDEA Awards. Read also the important Copyright Information page.

Entries need to be submitted online before the closing date: Friday 27 February 2026 (midnight) – CALL FOR 2026 WILL OPEN TOWARDS OCTOBER-NOVEMBER 2025. After the online submission of your entry, a signed copy of the submission form has to be sent to the MEDEA Awards Secretariat via post, e-mail or fax to arrive before the closing date: 27 February 2026 (midnight). All shortlisted finalists will be notified in April 2026 and will be invited to take part in the Awards Ceremony taking place during the 15th Media and Learning Conference, 18-19 June 2026 (Dtes to be confirMED), in Leuven, Belgium where the final winners will be announced. Submission is free.

The MEDEA Awards

  • The MEDEA Award for Best Educational Media entry. This award will be awarded to the best educational media, resource, tool or service produced in all sectors and at all levels of education and training.
  • The Special MEDEA Jury Prize. The judges may, at their discretion, present a special award to an approach or production in recognition of exceptional innovation in pedagogic or technical design.
  • The Audience Favourite Prize. During the Awards Ceremony, the audience has the possibility to elect its favourite entry.
  • Emerging Trend Focus – AI in Education: New this year, a special prize will honour innovative applications of AI in educational media production or usage, spotlighting innovative trends in the field.

The MEDEA Awards were launched in November 2007 and were an immediate success with submissions sent in from across Europe and beyond. Over the years, several new awards have been introduced, recognising and rewarding different aspects of the field of media in education and its importance in a European context. Since 2010 the MEDEA Awards are also integrated in the Media & Learning Conference, a conference bringing together practitioners and policymakers and highlighting the latest developments, services and digital and media competences in education and training.

From 2012 to 2014, the MEDEA Awards were supported by the Lifelong Programme of the European Commission through the MEDEAnet project. Two previous European Commission funded projects expanding the reach of the MEDEA Awards were called MEDEA:EU (2008-2011) and MEDEA2020 (2010-2012). From 2015 onwards, the MEDEA Awards have been supported by the Media & Learning Association.

In recent years there has been remarkable interest in the creation and use of digital video and audio in education, boosted by the increasing impact of multimedia and video-based websites and the widespread availability of mobile devices with increasing imaging capacity. The pedagogical vision is clear: it is only when video and audio are routine components of education and online learning, that we will have an educational environment that reflects the media-rich world in which our learners now live.

The annual MEDEA Awards have become a well-known landmark in the international educational calendar. The aim of this awards scheme is to encourage innovation and good practice in the use of media (audio, video, graphics and animation) in education. The awards also recognise and promote excellence in the production and pedagogical design of media-rich learning and teaching materials, resources, tools, processes and services.

Each year, the specific target of the year is announced along with the timetable for submission and judging. Entries need to be submitted via the online submission form before the specified deadline. Judging takes place online by a highly expert judging panel that is responsible for the selection of the MEDEA Award winners. The MEDEA Awards Judging Panel consists of key players and experts in the educational multimedia sector as well as representatives of higher education institutions, research centres, production houses and broadcasters specialised in the use of audio and visual material in education.

Once the finalists are selected, they are promoted through our channels including the Media & Learning Newsletter and invited to take part in the Awards Ceremony which takes place either during one of our face-to-face conferences or online.

The final winner (s) is announced during the Awards Ceremony.

The MEDEA Awards was set up to recognise and reward excellence in the field of media-enhanced learning in Europe. These awards were launched in 2007 by a small consortium of partners who are active in the field of media enhanced education and who are committed to raising awareness and promoting best practice in the innovative use of media to enhance education. The awards are managed by a small organising committee with experience in the area of education, e-learning and media production.

The founders of the MEDEA Awards were brought together by their wish to promote the use of media and video in education and their desire to encourage educators and trainers to benefit from the advantages of integrating new technologies and video in the curriculum. As the MEDEA Awards has grown, the team has been expanded to become the MEDEA Awards Organising Committee. The day-to-day activities of this competition are managed by the MEDEA Secretariat, which is based in ATiT, Belgium.

Current members of the organising committee are:

  • Janne Länsitie, Oulu University of Applied Sciences, Finland
  • John Murray, National University of Ireland Galway, Ireland
  • André Rosendaal, University of Groningen, The Netherlands
  • Mathy Vanbuel, Audiovisual Technologies, Informatics and Telecommunications (ATiT), Belgium
  • Lucy Kendra. Heriot-Watt, United Kingdom
  • Kara Johnston, Heriot-Watt, United Kingdom
  • Wim Van Petegem, KU Leuven, Belgium

We are looking for judges!

If you have relevant experience in the field of media, video, technology and education or training and if you would like to help judging submissions for the MEDEA Awards, please fill in this volunteer form.