STORK received the European Public Sector Award (EPSA) 2011 Best Practice Certificate. STORK was submitted for Theme2: "Opening Up the Public Sector Through Collaborative Governance". In total, 274 applications from 32 European countries and European institutions were received and were eligible for the evaluation phase. Top country submitters in the 2011 edition were Spain, Romania, Austria, Italy, Poland and Germany. Out of the 274 applications, 116 came from the local government level, 66 from the regional level, 85 from the national level, and 7 from European institutions. All eligible applications were assessed online by independent expert evaluators who also met in Maastricht on 26 and 27 May for a consensus meeting in order to agree on the final short-listed projects and the best practice certificate recipients for this edition. As a result of the consensus meeting, 21 applications coming from 10 different countries were short-listed. These projects, that cover the 3 themes of the award scheme, were subject to on-site visits in June in order to validate the statements and data provided in the application form as well as to discuss questions that have come up throughout the consensus meeting regarding certain aspects of the projects. In addition, the evaluators also identified a number of applications per theme that will be awarded an EPSA 2011 Best Practice Certificate. So, in total, 58 projects submitted by 18 European countries received a recognition in 2011.