The 2025 SURF Awards for Best Practice in Community Regeneration are now open for applications and nominations.

The SURF Awards are delivered in partnership with Scottish Government, with additional support from Creative Scotland, Scottish Procurement Alliance, Highlands and Islands Enterprise (HIE), South of Scotland Enterprise, and Scotland’s Towns Partnership.

The purpose is to highlight, celebrate and share the achievements of initiatives which address physical, social and economic challenges in communities across Scotland. Groups and organisations can apply for an Award themselves, or they can be nominated by someone else.

SURF’s (Scotland’s Regeneration Forum) overall objective is to improve the lives and opportunities of residents in Scotland’s disadvantaged communities, through their key aims and the SURF Network, which organises the awards.

The 5 award categories for 2025 are:

Community Led Regeneration
Creative Regeneration
Improving Scotland’s Places
Removing Barriers to Employability
Housing and Regeneration

The deadline for applications is 5pm on Monday 1 September 2025.

All application materials are available to download on the SURF website (linked for your convenience). A recording of the Launch Event and a short film from previous winners are also available. SURF strongly advises those looking to apply, or nominate, to download and read the Information Paper with the full criteria.

For further information, please visit the SURF press release.