CHAMPAIGN, Ill. — The BiRmingham-Illinois Partnership for Discovery, EnGagement and Education (BRIDGE) is continuing to gain global recognition after being selected to receive the 2025 Institute for International Education (IIE) Heiskell Award for Sustainability.
The IIE Heiskell Awards are named after Andrew Heiskell, a former chairman of the Executive Committee of IIE’s Board of Trustees. The awards were created in 2001 to honor IIE Network members whose initiatives exemplify the power and longevity of innovation in international higher education.
Nominees for the sustainability award must align with the United Nation’s Sustainable Development Goals and develop pioneering models of international education.
The University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign, an IIE Network member, received the sustainability award for its contributions to BRIDGE and commitment to driving innovation in sustainability, education, and health equity.
The recognition includes a $1,000 award to support ongoing BRIDGE activities, underscoring IIE’s commitment to the partnership’s mission.
“We are thrilled that the BRIDGE Partnership has been selected to receive the IIE Heiskell Award for Sustainability,” said Sammer Jones, director for Global Relations at Illinois International. “The partnership is rooted in sustainability, with some of the earliest research projects focusing on preservation of the environment and cultural heritage. We continue to emphasize the importance of sustainability in our joint research collaborations and through the BRIDGE Signature Initiative Project called Accelerating Climate Action.”
Launched in March 2014, the BRIDGE Partnership is a long-standing collaboration between Illinois and the University of Birmingham in Birmingham, England.
Together, the two institutions promote global engagement through impactful, solution-driven research aimed at addressing some of today’s most pressing challenges.
In March 2024, BRIDGE continued to demonstrate its deep commitment to sustainability, inclusion, and global collaboration through three newly funded projects — Accelerating Climate Action; Education Access and Equity: Empowering Education with the Global South; and the BRIDGE Global Health Institute.
These initiatives foster cross-institutional research and dialogue, engage diverse communities across the Global South, and align closely with the Paris Agreement and the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals.
From preparing policy-shaping climate reports for COP30 in Brazil, to convening a global conference on inclusive education, or to advancing health equity through collaborative research in epidemiology and diagnostics, Jones said these projects reflect the power and impact of international partnership.
To date, the partnership has supported around 115 collaborative projects addressing major global challenges, with $1.1 million invested in these projects and an additional $5.4 million in external funding.
“We are happy to share in the excitement our Illinois colleagues are experiencing having received this prestigious award,” said Lindsay Avery, head of global engagement for North America and Australia at the University of Birmingham. “We remain deeply committed to working with Illinois in advancing interdisciplinary, sustainable solutions to global challenges while fostering a new generation of globally engaged scholars at both institutions and beyond.”
Learn more about BRIDGE at https://bridgepartnership.org/.
Alicia Lozano is the social media assistant for Global Communications at Illinois International. She can be reached at alozano4@illinois.edu.