The Arts Council of Ireland has joined forces with the Office of Public Works (OPW) to offer a major new award in architecture. The 50,000 euro biennial Kevin Kieran Award, devised to celebrate the memory of the council's first architecture consultant and promote design excellence in Ireland, will constitute one of Europe's largest cash awards for a young architect. It will offer a gifted graduate the opportunity to travel and undertake an agreed piece of work – for example, writing, drawing, research or photography – that will further their creative abilities. On completion of this, the award winner will be engaged by OPW to design and build a relevant project. Arts Council Director, Patricia Quinn, said the organisation has always concentrated on career formation: ‘Our focus today is to promote design excellence by offering awards to architects of significant promise to undertake projects of research, study and criticism,' she affirmed. Before his tragic early death in 1999, Kevin Kieran made an important contribution to the development of the council's architecture policy, advocating particularly for the support of emerging and gifted architects. Further information on the Arts Council of Ireland is available online at: www.artscouncil.ie