The EFQM Excellence Model was introduced in 1992 as a framework for assessing applications for The European Quality Award and is now widely used in Europe as the basis for national and regional quality awards. The model encourages organizational self-assessment to help organizations understand gaps in performance and stimulate solutions. It is a non-prescriptive framework that recognizes there are many approaches to achieving sustainable excellence. The framework is based on nine criteria, with five "Enabler" criteria covering what an organization does and four "Results" criteria covering what an organization achieves, with results caused by enablers and feedback from results helping to improve enablers.