Qatar Foundation Launches the First Ever WISE AWARDS to Recognize Outstanding Innovation...

Qatar Foundation Launches the First Ever WISE AWARDS to Recognize Outstanding
Innovation in Education

Award submission open until July 15th online at
http://www.wise-qatar.org/en/awards

NEW YORK, May 19 /PRNewswire/ -- Qatar Foundation for Education, Science and
Community Development, initiator of the first ever World Innovation Summit for
Education - WISE - dedicated to monitoring the specific impact of 21st century
challenges on education, announces today the launch of one of the key
highlights of the WISE summit to be held next November in Doha, Qatar with the
inaugural WISE Awards 2009 - Innovative Education Practice Awards.

Highlighting the importance of the Awards initiative of the WISE summit, Dr.
Abdulla bin Ali Al-Thani, Chairman of WISE and Vice President of Education,
Qatar Foundation, explained: "For the first edition, the WISE Awards 2009 will
honor innovative, education-related projects and initiatives - tools,
practices or processes - that have fostered distinctive cross-educational
collaboration."

The WISE Awards are focused on rewarding a total of six concrete achievements
from around the world across three categories aligned with the Forum's main
themes of Pluralism, Sustainability and Innovation."

-- Pluralism: "Educational activities that explicitly generate greater
respect and understanding between communities, enhance diversity, or
increase access to and equality in education."
-- Sustainability: "Initiatives that offer new approaches to
educational sustainability (through appropriate funding mechanisms,
good
governance, suitable accreditation and quality control structure)
thereby contributing to the creation of sustainable global
societies."

-- Innovation: "Educational activities that use information and
communication technologies and other innovative means to generate new
and exciting opportunities for access and delivery of learning content
that better enable people to face the diversity of today's
challenges."

From May 1st to July 15th, 2009, online submissions from both individuals and
teams are invited, and must be endorsed by a senior officer of a relevant
organization. All applications - to be submitted in English - are welcome from
all sectors of education and all types of organizations located anywhere in
the world. WISE Awards submissions are now open online at
www.wise-qatar.org/en/awards.

45 short-listed applications (15 in each category) will be reviewed by an
International Jury, consisting of 10 of the world's leading experts in
pluralism, sustainability and innovation in education, drawn from public
institutions, civil society, the private sector, international organizations,
universities and social entrepreneurs.

An official awards ceremony to be held on November 17 during the WISE Summit
will officially announce the six WISE Awards. Each recipient will receive a
grant of $20,000 and the WISE Award winning projects will be showcased during
the World Innovation Summit for Education organized by Qatar Foundation to be
held in Doha, Qatar from November 16th to 18th, 2009.

Application forms and further details on the Innovative Education Practice
Awards are now available from http://www.wise-qatar.org/en/awards. Deadline
for applications is July 15th, 2009.

ABOUT WISE
WISE (World Innovation Summit for Education) is a global, groundbreaking,
collaborative initiative established by the Qatar Foundation that seeks to
monitor and contribute to 21st century challenges and their impact on
education. With 1,000 major education stakeholders, opinion leaders and
decision-makers from diverse disciplines in over 120 countries participating,
WISE endeavours to propose visionary thinking on education, offer new ways of
addressing current global challenges and untapped opportunities and anticipate
future education models. The WISE Forum takes place in Doha, Qatar, from
November 16th to 18th, 2009. Web: www.wise-qatar.org

ABOUT QATAR FOUNDATION FOR EDUCATION, SCIENCE AND COMMUNITY DEVELOPMENT
Qatar Foundation, located in Doha, Qatar, is an independent, private,
non-profit, chartered organization founded in 1995 by decree of His Highness
Sheikh Hamad Bin Khalifa Al-Thani, Emir of the State of Qatar, to support
centers of excellence which develop people's abilities through investments in
human capital, innovative technology, state of the art facilities and
partnerships with elite organizations, thus raising the competency of people
and the quality of life. Web: http://www.qf.org.qa/

SOURCE Qatar Foundation

Steve Naru of Fleishman-Hillard, +1-212-453-2228 (o), +1-646-369-8243 (m),
steve.naru@fleishman.com, for Qatar Foundation