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 (IBiS) opened the application process for the second annual P3 Impact Award today, which honors exemplar 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. Last year’s 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 winner of the 2015 competition will be announced at the Concordia Summit in New York City in September and receive a full scholarship for a weeklong Darden Executive Education course. The finalists will be featured in a special issue of the Darden School’s Ideas to Action publication, promoted on S/GP’s website, and recognized throughout the Summit.

Applications are being accepted until April 30, 2015, 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 in July.

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.

Special Representative for Global Partnerships Andrew O’Brien will host an informational Google Hangout to talk about the P3 Impact Award on February 3 at 2:00 p.m. He will be joined by Mary Margaret Frank, Academic Director at IBiS, and Natalie Pregibon, Director of Research at Concordia.

For further information, please contact the Secretary’s Office of Global Partnerships (S/GP) at or visit http://www.state.gov/s/partnerships/gpw/p3/.