Deadline: July 31, 2019 00:00 CEST| Apply here
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Eligibility: WSA is open to any company, organisation or individual in any UN and UNESCO member state
World Summit Awards 2019
The World Summit Awards are a unique awards system, selecting and promoting local digital innovation with high impact on improving society.
Is a non-monetary award system with a focus on sustainable knowledge transfer through a worldwide network. Winners benefit not from a one-time financial reward, but a lifelong partnership and integration.
WSA Young Innovators
The World Summit Awards promotes and awards also young innovators, who developed a digital application tackling the UN SDGs. The WSA Young Innovators is a special recognition for young social entrepreneurs under 26 years of age, using ICTs to take action on the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (UN SDGs).
Together with the WSA winners of each year, they are honoured as outstanding digital innovation with social impact.
The WSA Young Innovators Award is an open call. The participation in the WSA Young Innovators is open to any entrepreneur, company, student group or project team – at least one of the founding members and the majority of the team must be under the age of 26 (born on or after January 1, 1993).
Categories
The World Summit Award looks for digital applications that have a strong impact on society in one of the 8 WSA categories. WSA focusses on content depth, strategic value and local impact of a product.
WSA categories reflect the UN WSIS action lines and are updated regularly to meet the development of the markets. For the edition of the World Summit Awards 2019 the categories are:
- Government & citizen engagement – services | open data | democratic participation
- Health & wellbeing – medical care | sport | lifestyle
- Learning & education – knowledge | science | skills
- Environment & green energy – climate | sustainable resources | agriculture
- Culture & tourism – heritage | entertainment | subcultures
- Smart settlements & urbanization – mobility |productive work | sustainable living
- Business & commerce – innovative services | security | finance | marketing
- Inclusion & empowerment – diversity | gender | justice | human rights
Why apply?
The World Summit Awards are a non-monetary award system with a focus on sustainable knowledge transfer through a worldwide network. This means that winners benefit not from a one-time financial reward, but a lifelong partnership and integration.
Combining an ongoing series of international events and activities with a global network of start-ups, social entrepreneurs, mentors, jurors, speakers, experts, government leaders, academia and civil society, WSA is an international platform for cutting edge examples on how ICTs can have an impact on society.
More benefits of applying
Running 15 years by now, WSA has become a quality seal for digital content with societal impact in over 180 participating countries.
Invitation to the WSA Global Congress including:
- Pitching seminars
- 5-minute pitch session in front of an international audience during the Congress
- A program of specially crafted workshops for the winners
- Invitation to the prestigious award ceremony and Gala night
- Board and lodging for the durance of the Congress
- Eye to eye exchange with speakers, jurors and international guests
- Integration into a network of internationally recognized digital content developers
- Access to the WSA community of global experts and industry leaders in over 180 countries
- Interaction with world-renowned sponsors and partners of the WSA community
- Workshops specially shaped for the winners’ needs
- A video clip highlighting the winners’ projects
- Special placement on WSA website, youtube channel and social media promotion
- Long-term coverage within WSA editorial channels
How to apply?
The World Summit Awards are a nomination based award system. To participate, you need to be nominated by a WSA National Expert as the best national digital application in one of the 8 categories.
The nominations to WSA are possible through national contests and national Expert panel selection. Each country can only nominate one project/solution per category.
Through this high-level selection system, please be aware that every country has its own deadlines for the call. The generally communicated WSA deadline is the timeframe of the global call and communicates the last possible date of a nomination by the national expert panel.
Find out who your WSA National Expert is. Then you can contact the WSA office and they will be happy to introduce you to your WSA National Expert. Once you have contacted your expert, they will go through the steps you will need to take in order to qualify for national selection with you.
Some countries also offer application through a national contest.
Interested in applying for the World Summit Awards 2019? Register your participation by following the application link and taking the suggested steps.
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