The National Lottery Awards

The National Lottery Awards are an annual search to find the UK's favourite Lottery-funded projects. Lottery players raise £25 million each week for Good Causes and the Awards are a great way to highlight how that funding has changed the UK for the better.

Now in their fifth year, the Awards aim to recognise the incredible difference that Lottery-funded projects - both large and small - have made to people, places and communities, all across the UK. They also celebrate the talent, hard work and amazing dedication of the people involved in running Lottery-funded projects - in other words, giving YOU the credit you deserve!

Since The National Lottery began in 1994, over 280,000 grants have been awarded across the arts, sport, heritage, charities, health, education and the environment.

How do the Awards work?

The entries are sifted and assessed by an independent body called Lottery Monitor, which has the job of monitoring the use of Lottery funding. An independent judging panel will then consider the entries, and shortlist 10 projects in each category to go through to the first round of public voting.

This year, the Awards are in seven categories that reflect the different types of projects that benefit from Lottery funding. The categories are:

• Best Arts Project
• Best Education Project
• Best Environment Project
• iVillage.co.uk Award for Best Health Project
• Best Heritage Project
• Best Sports Project
• Woman magazine Award for Best Charity/Voluntary Project

The first round of public voting will run from 16 June - 4 July, with voting available online and by telephone.

The three projects in each category with the most votes will progress to the final round, which will run from 21 July - 8 August. The votes are reset to zero for the final round of public voting, and the winners will be announced on a special BBC1 show in the autumn.