Washington, DC - The U.S. Department of State Secretary’s Office of Global Partnerships (S/GP), along with Concordia and the University of Virginia Darden School of Business Institute for Business in Society opened the application process for the third annual P3 Impact Award today, which honors exemplary public-private partnerships (P3s) from around the world.

The P3 Impact Award was created by the three partners in 2014 to recognize P3s that are improving communities and the world in impactful ways. It aims to share and advance best practices in P3s, and encourage the creation and scaling of the P3 model worldwide. Finalists from 2014 and 2015 were highlighted in special issues of the Darden School’s Ideas to Action publication.

The 2014 winner was CocoaLink, a partnership between The Hershey Company, the Ghana Cocoa Board, and the World Cocoa Foundation, which seeks to use mobile technology to give cocoa farmers more access to information and improved farming techniques.

The 2015 winner was the TV White Space Partnership in the Danajon Reef, a partnership between the Government of the Philippines, USAID, and Microsoft to use an innovative technology to extend Internet access to remote coastal communities to support government efforts to register fisherfolk and sustainably manage the nation’s fisheries.

The winning partnership of the 2016 competition will be announced at the Concordia Summit in New York City from September 19-20, 2016 and receive a full scholarship for a weeklong Darden Executive Education course. The finalists will again be featured in a special issue of the Darden School’s Ideas to Action publication, promoted through the partners’ websites, and recognized throughout the Summit.

Applications are being accepted until April 4, 2016, and will be reviewed by an independent panel of judges. Judges will review the applications based on the partnership’s measurable impacts, economic and social benefits, innovation, financial effectiveness, and scalability. The finalists will be selected and notified in June.

For the purpose of the application, public-private partnerships are defined as any cross-sector collaboration that features public, private, nongovernmental, or nonprofit organizations that address societal problems. Full criteria and application instructions can be found on the P3 Impact Award website.