Design Management Europe Award

The DME Award started off as part of the ADMIRE programme in January 2007. The ADMIRE programme was a 2-year project in the European PRO – INNO programme of the Directorate-General for Enterprise and Industry of the European Commission. The 6.4 million Euro programme addressed the Innovation management agenda of PRO – INNO Europe by raising the awareness of Design Management, in particular amongst European small and medium enterprises, to improve their competitiveness and to boost the European economy in general. It was one of the key project objectives to establish the DME Award. 18 European organisations participated in this programme under the coordination of the City of Eindhoven until the end of the ADMIRE project in February 2009.[6][7][8][9]

The former ADMIRE partners have been organising the DME Award since the end of the funded ADMIRE project on a voluntary basis. The role of these DME partners is to promote and organize the annual DME Award. For this purpose, a DME Award board was elected. The board consists of five representatives from the following organisations:[10]

• Cardiff Metropolitan University
• City of Eindhoven
• European Design Centre
• Design Austria

The costs of the DME Award ceremony are covered by the hosting cities and entering the Award is free for all participants. The entrants are challenged to represent their Design Management processes, strategies and procedures in poster format. These posters are judged by a jury of internationally recognised Design Management experts.[11]

Large Company:

• Open to private companies with 250 employees or more or with an annual turnover in excess of €50,000,000

Medium-sized Company:

• Open to private companies with 50 to 249 employees or with an annual turnover not in excess of €50,000,000

Small Company:

• Open to private companies with 10 to 49 employees and with an annual turnover not in excess of €10,000,000

Micro Company:

• Open to private companies with 9 employees or less and with an annual turnover not in excess of €2,000,000

Public or non–profit organisation (NPO):

• Open to public or non–profit organisations such as charities, government programmes, city councils or schools and colleges

Organisations outside of Europe

• Open to any private companies and public or non-profit organisations operating outside of Europe.[13]

First time design project (2007–2010):

• This category was specific to SMEs (less than 250 employees and a turnover not in excess of €50,000,000). The purpose of this category was to showcase good examples of organisations managing design for the first time. This could have either come from established organisations or from start – ups.

Design strategy for sustainability (2008–2009):

• This category was open to private companies and public organisations of all sizes. Sustainability relates to design strategies encompassing social responsibility, improving the environment or reducing ecological impact.[14]