The Team of the Year Award: recognising the people behind good licensing decisions

For as long as IoL has run awards, they have recognised individuals, the standout officer, the promising newcomer. What has been missing is recognition for the team behind them, the colleagues whose work makes good licensing decisions possible but who rarely get named for it. That gap is why IoL created the Team of the Year Award for 2026, a new prize built specifically to recognise teams, not individuals, for excellence across the licensing profession.

It joins the Jeremy Allen Award for Outstanding Individual and the Charles Holland Award for Best Newcomer as the third IoL Award for 2026. Nominations for all three have been open for some time, with the closing date recently extended from 1 August to 1 September 2026.

Judges are looking for teams that have shown innovation and excellence in licensing, made a genuine positive impact locally, demonstrated outstanding partnership working, or contributed to local or national initiatives. A team does not need to tick every box, a strong case against even one is enough.

One rule is worth knowing before you nominate: it has to come from someone else, self nomination is not allowed, though the nominator can be a colleague in another department or a partner you work alongside. A team nominated before can be put forward again, but only with a genuinely new achievement since its last nomination.

Nominations should be sent to awards@instituteoflicensing.org before 1 September 2026, with full criteria on the IoL website. Winners across all three awards will be announced at IoL’s Gala Dinner on Thursday 19 November, during the National Training Conference at the Crowne Plaza Hotel in Stratford upon Avon, part of a year that also marks IoL’s thirtieth anniversary.

If there is a team in your authority or organisation whose work has gone unrecognised outside your own building, this is the moment to put that right.