WISE Prize For Education: A Global Recognition for Educational Innovators

The Wise Prize for Education is now open for Applications. The final winner will receive a 1 million USD prize. The WISE Prize for Education is a prestigious award that honors an individual or a team for their outstanding and lifelong contribution to education.

The prize was established in 2011 by Her Highness Sheikha Moza bint Nasser, the Chairperson of Qatar Foundation, with the aim to raise global awareness of the crucial role of education in all societies, and create a platform for innovative and practical solutions that might help alleviate some of the challenges which education faces around the world.

Wise prize consists of a $1 million USD award and a gold medal, which are presented at the biennial WISE Summit. The prize also provides financial support, mentorship and capacity-building to the finalists, who are selected through a rigorous process based on their solution development for one of the key education challenges identified by WISE.

These challenges include improving the:

Teaching of Arabic language,
Accelerating foundational literacies,
Addressing challenges in A.I.

Who can Apply for the WISE?

The following are the main criteria for applying to the WISE Awards:

The applicant must be a legal entity that operates in the education sector, such as a school, university, company, NGO, government agency, etc.
The applicant must have been running for at least one year and have established programs or products that demonstrate impact and innovation.
The applicant must submit an original project that is aligned with the WISE mission and vision, and must be authorized to represent the project.
The applicant can belong to any education level or domain, such as early childhood, primary, secondary, higher, vocational, informal, lifelong learning, etc.
The applicant must not infringe on any third-party rights or expose WISE to any legal claims or disputes regarding the project.

What to submit for WISE ?

Applicants should have evidence of the transformative impact on individuals, communities and

society in education already achieved from previous ventures, with:

A strong record of proven success
Minimum 2 years in operation
More than one source of funding
At least one dedicated full-time team member (or full-time equivalent) to drive the solution
development
A clear plan indicating the project’s objectives and development in response to the
education challenge it will address
A scalable solution and ability to replicate in other contexts and regions

Benefits of the Wise Prize Award

An award of $ 1 million USD prize for the winner of 2025 WISE award
The winner will receive Financial support of $100K -150K to support the solution development
Access to mentorship
Capacity building for team members
Monitoring and support from WISE team