ITU Young Innovators Competition 2014

We just launched our third of several challenges this year, focused on ‘Smart Cities and Climate Change’. We think that some people in your network will be interested to participate.

The competition is open to 18-30 year-old young people from across ITU’s 193 member states.

Partnering with the World Health Organization (WHO) we are looking for innovative ideas on how information and communication technologies (ICTs) can help smart cities to slow down or mitigate the effects of climate change and thereby improve people’s health. This might include novel technologies or combinations of existing technologies, services, and systems which would shape a smart city. It may focus on monitoring or reporting on climate change, mitigating or adapting the impact of climate change on society, or on changes in technology and society that lead to a greener community.

Since this is a co-creation challenge, we are looking for any useful thoughts or information which might help us, as a community to develop the concept for a new startup. We are running the challenge in parallel with an effort to crowdsource a youth contribution to the WHO Conference on Health and Climate Change. Several of our best ideas will be featured as part of that conference August 27–29. Participants should go to https://ideas.itu.int to get more information and apply.

We will be accepting ideas until October 7, 2014. 

The innovators who are selected as winners of this challenge by a Selection Committee of experts are invited to attend ITU Telecom World 2014. At the event itself, selected Young Innovators will enjoy mentoring and workshops on entrepreneurial skills, opportunities to meet and network with leading ICT players, and the chance to showcase their projects at the InnovationSpace, a dedicated show floor pavilion. Prize money of up to USD 5,000 in the form of seed funding will be awarded to implement and bring to scale winning start-ups.

Thank you,

Young Innovators Competition Team
Young.innovators@itu.int