Celebrating Planning Excellence
The Northern Ireland Awards for Planning Excellence 2025 showcase and celebrate the best plans, projects and people.
Our coveted awards recognise and highlight the positive contribution planning professionals make in the communities we serve around the world.
Entries are now closed.
The judging process
The RTPI Awards for Planning Excellence has 15 national award categories. Entries in Northern Ireland are initially judged across 11 categories and awarded as:
- Best Plan
- Best Project
- Planning Authority of the Year
- Small Planning Consultancy of the Year
- Mid-Size Planning Consultancy of the Year
- Young Planner of the Year*
These winners become national finalists.
The shortlisted entries are put through for judging in the national awards and will be judged against the others in their selected categories for the national finalist list. The remaining four direct to national categories are also judged to complete the national finalist list of 15 categories. The winners and commendations are announced at the national ceremony in November .
*All Young Planner of the Year winners will be entered into the national shortlist and will be judged by the national judges and the top five will become national finalists.
“We were delighted to receive a 2024 RTPI NI Excellence in Planning for Health and Wellbeing Award for our project Murphy’s on Main Street Community Hub in Fermanagh. We were also commended in the Heritage and Culture category. We found the awards process to be very thorough and fair. There is a comprehensive questionnaire followed by on-site visit carried out by RTPI judges. This small restoration, adaptation and extension of a listed village building, certainly punches above its weight as we subsequently made the final shortlist of 7 national award winners throughout the UK. Our little project in north Fermanagh was listed with projects such as a neurological hospital in York and the restoration of an 11-storey tower for the University of Plymouth! This emphasised to us that the RTPI judges were only concerned about quality irrespective of costs or scale.”
Eamonn Monaghan, Keys and Monaghan Architects
Key dates 2025
- Site visits – 23 April - 7 May - Northern Ireland judges site visits and/or Young Planner interviews
- 15 May - Northern Ireland shortlist announced
- 9 June - Announcing the winners in Northern Ireland at the awards ceremony
- August/September - National awards judging
- Mid-October - National finalists announced
- 27 November - National ceremony
The RTPI Northern Ireland Awards for Planning Excellence celebration event will be held on 9 June at Ulster University and will be invitation only. Shortlisted entries will be allocated 3 free places and will receive an email invitation to book.
Sponsors
If you are interested in sponsoring the Northern Ireland awards, please contact Julie Sullivan, Member Services Officer.
For more information
If you have any questions, please visit the awards hub or contact Julie Sullivan, Member Services Officer.
