Do you know of an outstanding Bulgarian digital product with a social impact? Are you based in Bulgaria and are currently developing such content, and you are looking forward to expanding your outreach and partnership network?
Consider a submission for the WSA National Contest Bulgaria!
WSA is a nomination-based award system with a clear focus on digital innovation with social impact and relation to the UN SDGs.
Submissions for the WSA 2021 contest can contain all mobile and web-based applications, such as apps, webpages, applications for wearable’s, kiosk installations, SMS-based products, mobile games, and interactive mobile productions. There is no limitation regarding the platforms or channels the projects work with. You can submit your own project, or propose a third-party product, and we will take care and contact the team developing it.
Nominations to the international WSA are possible through national contests and national expert panel selection. The European Software Institute – Center Eastern Europe (ESI CEE) organizes the WSA National Contest for Bulgaria.
Make sure to submit your project until October 06, 2021, for the pre-selection of WSA 2021 in Bulgaria through https://wsabg.org/apply/
You can submit a project in one of the following eight categories:
The Government & Citizen Engagement category may entail solutions that:
Integrate the citizens in public administration & increase the citizen engagement
Deliver content rich solutions to the public & connect the public including individuals, businesses and organisations
Enable low threshold access of information, data & procedures & make public services accessible to all
Significantly improve and enhance service depth and quality & democratic processes
Increase transparency in governmental processes & facilitate participation of citizens and public services clients
Simplify administrations & foster efficiency of information exchange
Ensure equal rights to economic resources, access to basic services, ownership and control over land and other forms of property, inheritance, natural resources, appropriate new technology and financial services, including microfinance
Health & Well Being solutions may address, for example:
Meeting healthcare needs of citizens and patients with innovative content applications
Reduce maternal mortality ratio & preventable deaths of new-borns and children
Prevention & reduction of epidemics like AIDS, tuberculosis, malaria, hepatitis or substance abuse
Supporting healthcare professionals, as well as the broader public, policy makers and healthcare providers with easy data access and communication tools & diagnosing with technical solutions & content
Supporting research and development of vaccines and medicines, health financing and recruitment, development, training and retention of the health workforce
Enable information on healthcare, nutrition, medication, disease & well-being by smart solutions
Solutions to learn health & well-being by improving and enhancing healthy behaviour, nutrition, hygiene, sports
Content rich solutions to enjoy and facilitate sports, music, entertainment, style & fashion
Utilizing ICTs for hobbies, free-time activities and sports
The Learning & Education category may entail ICT solutions that:
Provide intelligent solutions for easy & low threshold access of education for everyone
Address the learning needs of every level of learner and creating interactive e-learning communities & interactive, personalized and distributed education resources online
Support knowledge transfer and skills gain in a complex and interactive fashion
Help teachers to enhance and simplify teaching & material creation & find new methods and innovative teaching solutions using ICT’s
Enhance corporate training & lifelong learning
Foster global collaboration in science, provide measures to promote science and demonstrate results and value to society
Eliminate gender disparities in education and ensure equal access to all levels of education and vocational training including persons with disabilities, indigenous peoples and children in vulnerable situations
Provide child, disability and gender sensitive education tools and safe, non-violent, inclusive and effective learning environments
The Environment & Green Energy category may entail ICT solutions that:
Support maintaining ecosystems, sustainable food production systems & resilient agricultural practices that increase productivity and production
Adaptation to climate change, extreme weather, drought, flooding and other disasters
Utilization of genetic resources and associated traditional knowledge for sustainable agriculture
Facilitation of timely access to market information, including on food reserves
Supporting methods via ICT’s to progressively improve land and soil quality
Enhance agricultural productivity and support small-scale food producers
Water-use efficiency across all sectors & water resource management at all levels
Support and strengthen the participation in water- and sanitation, including water harvesting, desalination, water efficiency, wastewater treatment, recycling and reuse technologies
Enhance access to clean energy research and technology, including renewable energy, energy efficiency and advanced and cleaner fossil-fuel technology
Culture & Tourism solutions may address for example:
Preserving and presenting cultural heritage in line with the challenges of the future
Demonstrating valuable cultural assets clearly and informatively using state-of-the-art technology
Develop the diversity of cultures and sub-cultures and the multilingual nature of societies
Enabling travellers to find attractions, to be informed and enlightened, to enjoy safe travel and have access to up-to-date travel information
Enhance intermodal use of public transport, supporting orientation in cities and countryside, allowing the hotel industry to address customers, and providing navigation-based content
Promote sustainable tourism that creates jobs and promotes local culture and products
The Smart Settlements & Urbanization category may entail ICT solutions that:
Support higher levels of economic productivity through diversification, technological upgrading and innovation
Support productive employment and decent work for all women and men, including for young people and persons with disabilities, and equal pay for work of equal value
Offer regional and trans border infrastructure, to support economic development and human well-being
Enhance safe, affordable, accessible and sustainable transport systems
Entail inclusive and sustainable, integrated and sustainable human settlement planning and management
Solutions for safe, inclusive and accessible, green and public spaces
Support positive economic, social and environmental links between urban, per-urban and rural areas
Solutions for financial and technical assistance, sustainable and smart buildings
Substantially increase the number of cities and human settlements adopting and implementing integrated policies and plans towards inclusion, resource efficiency, mitigation and
Support adaptation to climate change, resilience to disasters and/or risk management
Consumer information and/or smart access to data at all levels
This category may entail ICT solutions with high social impact that:
support and optimization of business processes
are Fintech solutions with social impact
create of new business models in e-commerce and m-commerce
are solutions which demonstrate an incremental or radical / disruptive innovation development
are applications, processes, products or business models in the financial services industry
are solutions with regard to their supported business processes such as financial information, payments, investments, financing, advisory and cross-process support
are solutions for the insurance industry (“InsurTech”), like retail, private and corporate banking as well as life and non-life insurance
are Business-to-business (B2B), business-to-consumer (B2C) or consumer-to-consumer (C2C) solutions, internet security and other areas
are complementary services such as personal finance management systems, or competitive solutions such as e.g. peer-to-peer lending
provide Data security to protect sensitive consumer and corporate financial data
This category may entail ICT solutions with high social impact that:
support integration of the global information society, empower the social, economic and political inclusion of all, irrespective of age, sex, disability, race, ethnicity, origin, religion or economic or other status
empowering citizens and stakeholders in public services
reduce “digital divides” between technology-empowered and technology-excluded communities
Ensure equal opportunity and reduce inequalities, eliminating discriminatory laws, policies and practices in legislation, policies and action in this regard
Enhance resilience to climate-related extreme events and other economic, social and environmental shocks and disasters
Support mobilization of resources from a variety of sources
Ensure access for all everyone to food, education, information, data etc.
Strengthen the capacity, in particular developing countries, for early warning, risk reduction and health risks
Reduce discrimination against all women and girls & prevent all forms of violence against all women and girls in the public and private spheres
Enhance the use of enabling technology, in particular information and communications technology, to promote the empowerment of women
The above descriptions are suggestions & guidelines, not restrictions. Projects can apply for one category at a time. Application form for projects in these categories is available here: https://wsabg.org/apply/
Last but not least, you can also submit a project to the special category for young innovators, below the age of 26 years, through the dedicated portal on the WSA Global website, here: https://wsa-global.org/wsa-young-innovators/
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, 1995).
Eligible for young citizens of all UN member states, WSA Young Innovators is open to every start-up, social entrepreneur, NGO, student or individual!
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, 1995).
Submissions for the WSA Young Innovators can contain all mobile and web-based projects, such as: apps, web pages, applications for wearables, kiosk installations, SMS based products, games and interactive productions. There is no limitation regarding the platforms or channels the projects work with.
All submissions have to be launched products. No drafts, ideas or unfinished projects can be accepted.
As an UN-based initiative, the World Summit Awards select and promote the world’s most outstanding digital content. “Today, our world is almost entirely connected. But in this ocean of products and services, quality content is hard to find and local solutions have a hard time competing with mainstream solutions”, states WSA Chairman Peter A Bruck. “WSA provides the answer to this issue, by promoting local content with global relevance.”
After the national pre-selection period, a jury of eminent experts will come together to evaluate the submissions and select the 40 best products from among hundreds of national nominations and the 6 best young innovators in the Youth category.
The winners will get the chance to present their products at the WSA Global Congres. The event will offer a platform for high-level experts, industry leaders, and government representatives to discuss digital innovation.
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