The National Adult Literacy Association has announced details of the 2007 Adult Literacy Awards. The funding will be used to develop and promote new teaching methods throughout Ireland.
The EBS Building Society has donated €20,000 in research grants towards the awards.
There are approximately 40,000 adults attending 130 literacy services throughout the Republic.
The National Adult Literacy Association and the EBS are inviting those involved in adult basic education to submit their nominations.
The objective is to identify original and creative tuition programmes that would profit from further development and research.
Five nominees will be shortlisted in November and each nominee will be awarded €2,000 to continue research on their submission.
The winner will be announced in January 2008 and will receive a €10,000 grant to develop and publish their research.
At the launch of this year's awards, Inez Baily, director of the association, said the awards were designed to "encourage organisations to identify the research potential of their innovative work and recognise, share and learn from the work being done by others in the field".
Aidan Power, head of marketing at EBS, said: "EBS is delighted to further strengthen its partnership with Nala and to help address the serious issue of adult literacy difficulties. We hope that the funding will encourage people to enter innovative and relevant projects for the awards."
The closing date for nominations is October 5th.
Nomination forms are available on the National Adult Literacy Association website at www.nala.ie and the EBS website, www.ebs.ie