Eligibility & Support
To apply for the King’s Award for Enterprise your organisation must:
- Be based in the UK (including the Channel Islands and the Isle of Man)
- Have a good compliance record with HM Revenue and Customs (HMRC) -
for example, showing you pay the right amount of tax on time - Be a self-contained enterprise under its own management and complete its own accounts
- Have at least 2 full-time UK employees or part-time equivalents
- Demonstrate strong environmental, social, and governance practices
- Your organisation can be a business, non-profit or in the public sector.
Each of the award categories has additional entry criteria. (See Below)
Young Founder (NEW)
To apply for the Young Founder award, you must have:
- Evidence of commercial success or growth potential, such as a turnover of £250K, or external funding (i.e. investments, loans, grants) totaling £500K.
- The founder(s) must be aged 18–30 at the time the Award is granted (6 May 2027) and must be actively leading the business during the application period.
Applications will be assessed across five themes:
- Fresh Ideas & Creative Thinking: A short video outlining the founder’s journey, from idea to impact.
- Driving Growth & Industry Influence: Business performance over the past 1–2 years and any recognition as a thought leader.
- Leading & Inspiring: The company’s long-term vision and how it is implemented; mentoring or ecosystem contributions.
- Strategic Resilience: Examples of challenges faced and how the business adapted.
- Customer Value: How customer satisfaction is measured and used to improve products or services.
International Trade
To apply for the International Trade award, you must also:
- Have made a minimum of £100,000 in overseas sales in the first year ofyour entry and show year-on-year growth
- Prove that your organisation has achieved outstanding growth in overseas
earnings relative to your business size and sector - Prove steep year-on-year growth (without dips) in overseas sales over 3 years - or substantial year-on-year growth (without dips) over 6 years
Innovation
To apply for the Innovation award, you must also:
- Have an innovation that has not been sold beforeHave had your innovation available on the market for at least 2 years
- Have recovered all the investments made in your innovation or show that the innovation will recover its full costs in the future
- Show outstanding commercial success as a result of innovation between 2 to 5 years
- Your innovation should be in one of the following categories: invention, design or production of goods
Sustainable Development
To apply for the Sustainable Development award, you must also:
- Show how you’ve achieved outstanding sustainable development for more than 2 years
- Give evidence of the benefits or positive outcomes of your actions or
interventions - Show how your company and its senior leaders pioneer sustainable
development in your sector or community - Show how you've overcome challenges with sustainability that are specific to your sector
You can include examples, such as showing how you've:
- Developed an innovative product, service, or process that has
environmental benefits - Made sustainability an essential part of your organisation, supply chain or community
Read the United Nations sustainable development goals to identify which goals are relevant to your work.
Promoting Opportunity through social mobility
To apply for this award, your organisation must have a programme that supports people from disadvantaged backgrounds in improving their job skills and their chances of finding work.
This includes doing one or more of the following, for at least 2 years:
- Providing work experience or careers advice
Mentoring - Offering interview and job-related training
- Making sure your recruitment process is open to everyone
You'll need to prove the benefits for:
- The people you've supported
For more information about these criteria or the KAE use the CONTACT US PAGE