To apply for the Spear’s Awards, candidates must complete an online submission form detailing their achievements over the past year.
- Register an account here.
- Start your entry (save it in-progress).
- Submit by the final deadline.
The process includes responding to a series of award-specific questions and providing any supporting material relevant to the nomination.
There is no fee to enter; this reflects the Awards’ commitment to recognising genuine merit and maintaining the integrity of the judging process.
Awards timeline:
- Awards entries open: 18 May 2026
- Awards entries close: 2 July 2026
- Finalists announced: 9 September 2026
- Awards ceremony: 3 November 2026
Creating a successful application
The Spear’s Awards submissions with the highest chance of success are:
- Written either by the candidate themselves (in the case of individual awards) or by a senior member of the team (in the case of team or firm awards).
- Filled with specific detail, evidence and facts – rather than value judgements and assertions.
- Concise.
- Well aligned with the award category.
- Likely to include at least one specific case study.
Judging process
The majority of the Spear’s Awards categories are decided by a panel comprised of independent judges who have been selected on the grounds of their outstanding sector-specific expertise, alongside Spear’s Editor-in-Chief and Head of Research. The two exceptions to this are the Spear’s Impact Award and the Entrepreneur of the Year Award, which are deliberated by the Spear’s editorial and research team only.
In the selection of independent judges, every effort is taken to avoid conflicts of interest, or the appearance thereof. Each judge is asked to consider a limited number of awards categories, where their expertise is most relevant. Judges are asked to declare an interest if they have a personal connection to any candidate, but professional relationships (such as being a client of a candidate’s firm, or being a service-provider to a candidate) is not considered grounds for recusal.
In the vast majority of cases, judges could not be considered competitors of candidates for the awards categories that they are asked to evaluate. The only exception to this is where the previous year’s winner is invited to return as a judge. If they accept this invitation, they are of course not eligible to apply for an award. Where relevant, they are also forbidden to vote for any colleague from the same firm.
The judges are asked to consider the awards submission form supplied by candidates and also their own knowledge of the candidates. Judges award one point to their third preference, two points to their second preference and three points to their first preference. The winner is the candidate who receives the most points. In the event of a tie, the chair of judges has the casting vote.