To participate you must meet these requirements: be less than 33 years old, reside in any of the member countries of the Council of Europe, have developed a digital project that has a positive impact on society and present it in an international meeting in Graz (Austria), the month of November.
Nominations for the European Youth Award can be submitted until July 15 through this registration form. Eght different categories have been established, which are detailed below:
- Fitness: refers to the physical well-being and how to help people with health problems to develop healthier and happier lives. Economic and social barriers often impede access to medical treatment and healthy living initiatives involving digital technologies can promote healthy habits, practice sport or a balanced diet.
- Smart Learning: This category focuses on finding new creative approaches to education and learning. Many colleges and universities reported huge school dropout rates and education gap remains the social reality in most countries. The innovation could boost learning motivation to study through the information and entertainment, among others.
- Connecting cultures: projects that can promote and support, for example, multilingualism, understanding and knowledge of different cultures and communities, creating new contemporary forms of culture and preserving indigenous knowledge and traditions. The category is also open to creative applications or websites that facilitate sustainable transport.
- Head over to green: This category includes solutions to environmental problems such as the disappearance of natural resources, rising energy consumption, waste production and climate change. This can be achieved by showing new ways to conserve biodiversity, increase energy efficiency, use renewable resources, prolonging the cycles of products or reduce CO2 emissions. This category also includes mobility innovations and research of digital solutions for smart cities, sustainable agriculture and the "greening" of societies and economies.
- Active citizenship: this category want to solve problems of injustice and social exclusion and discrimination due to age, race, gender, ethnicity and sexuality. Active citizenship projects can be examples of participatory journalism or the struggle for transparent policy, among others.
- Economic problems: This category looks for solutions that improve the economic understanding, combat poverty and help people to make a decent living. Almost one in four young Europeans is also unemployed.2 with growing income differences, many working people are struggling to make ends meet. Money matters flight innovations that create opportunities for social commerce, reduce unemployment and to illustrate how the money. This, for example, career guidance includes innovative, responsible spending, fair trade, taxation and banking, finance and numerous micro-initiatives as well as creating and maintaining a home friendly economic environment.
- Open Innovation: This category is for all the crazy and unusual digital projects that do not fit any of the other categories, but still have a strong impact on society.
- Special Category 2016: now one of the biggest challenges Europe is moving refugiats.La special category of 2016 certainly want to answer this question and seeks applications, websites and other digital projects related to migration, integration, inclusion and movement refugees.
Each category will have three winners are traveling to Graz to present their project, receive the return of international experts, attend lectures by prominent speakers and entrepreneurs and be able to exchange and discuss their ideas with other young participants from all over Europe. The European Youth Award event is organized by the European Council, UNIDO and The Congress of Local and Regional Authorities .