Applications were welcomed from any actor or institution along the organic value chain with a noteworthy project contributing to the greater affordability and/or accessibility of organic products in the EU can apply. Project promoters were required to be established or residents in the EU. Applications needed to be submitted in one of the official EU languages and the projects EU based.

Applications for the EU Organic Awards had to meet the following eligibility criteria:

a) The starting point to apply for one of the awards was the EU organic awards webpage, which linked to the online application forms for each of the awards during the required period. Applications needed to be submitted by 14 May 2023, 23:59:59 CEST at the latest.

Only complete applications (all sections filled in) submitted via the online platform by the deadline were considered.

b) Applications needed to be in one of the official EU languages.

c) Applicants were required to be legal or natural persons established or resident in one of the 27 Member States of the EU.

d) The project submitted had to be EU based and refer clearly to one of the 7 award categories/8 awards. The same project could not be submitted for several award categories/awards. Each applicant could only apply for one single award. The maximum number of applications per award was one.

e) The winners of the 2022 edition could not re-apply for the 2023 edition. The non-winning finalists of the 2022 edition could re-apply for the 2023 edition.

f) The project was required to either have been fully implemented already or be in a sufficiently mature state so as to enable the jury to assess it (i.e. physical implementation was to be advanced enough to demonstrate the achievement of the objectives).

g) Specific eligibility criteria for each award category:

• Best organic farmer (female) and Best organic farmer (male): Certified accordingly to the Regulation (EU) 2018/848 of 30 May 2018 on organic production and labelling of organic products and repealing Council Regulation (EC) No 834/2007;
• Best organic region: No specific eligibility criteria;
• Best organic city: No specific eligibility criteria; in case the city operates one or more organic farms or stores, proof of their organic certification needed to be provided. This proof had to be a valid certificate at the moment of submission;
• Best organic "bio-district": A “bio-district” was defined as a geographical area where farmers, the public, tourist operators, associations and public authorities enter into an agreement for the sustainable management of local resources, based on organic principles and practices;
• Best organic food processing SME: Enterprise certified according to Regulation (EU) 2018/848, and having 100% organic production and complying with the SME definition (an enterprise employing fewer than 250 persons, with an annual turnover not exceeding EUR 50 million, and /or an annual balance sheet total not exceeding EUR 43 million). Cooperatives were understood as enterprises. Processing was understood as defined by Regulation (EU) No 852/2004;
• Best organic food retailers: Enterprise certified according to Regulation (EU) 2018/848 and having 100% organic certified references on sale (excluding non-food products or food products for which there was no organic availability) and complying with the SME definition (an enterprise employing fewer than 250 persons, with an annual turnover not exceeding EUR 50 million, and/or an annual balance sheet total not exceeding EUR 43 million). Cooperatives were understood as enterprises;
• Best organic restaurant/food service: Enterprise having 100% organic certified references in their menu, where possible and complying with the SME definition (an enterprise employing fewer than 250 persons, with has an annual turnover not exceeding EUR 50 million, and/or an annual balance sheet total not exceeding EUR 43 million). Cooperatives were understood as enterprises.

All eligible applications were assessed by the EU Organic Awards jury against the following horizontal award criteria:

• Excellence: The awardee was required to have developed an excellent initiative producing real added value for organic production. This meant good results and impact of the project in relation to its initial objectives. Projects needed to demonstrate their impact on the area and territory concerned and show their results against the initially set targets and objectives.
• Innovative character of the project in the selected award category: Projects could not be "business as usual", but had to demonstrate new approaches, new organisational methods, or the development of new (or significantly) improved results for organics. The criteria for measuring the innovative character for each category were described in more detail in the dedicated section of the category.
• Sustainability pillars (environmental, social and economic) of the project: Projects needed to demonstrate their sustainability and their future as a self-standing initiative, or how they met each pillar of sustainability in 3 different sub-sections.
• Transferability and possibility to replicate the project elsewhere in the EU: The project needed to demonstrate that it represented good practice in a wider (EU) context and that it inspired or could inspire other places. The project also needed to show good ways of communicating its goals and results.

The applicants were asked to answer guiding questions, developed in relation to the four principles of organic agriculture and the sustainability pillars, as well as a project summary. These questions helped the applicants to better structure their statements and the jury to obtain more data about the applicants.