WSA Global Award

WSA selects and promotes local digital innovation, improving society. It 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.

Participate in the WSA Awards

The World Summit Awards (WSA) is a nomination-based award system. Each country can have up to 8 nominees representing it in the global round of the contest.

WSA National Experts, well-connected professionals in local startup and social impact communities, select the nominees in their countries.

Are you ready to convince your National Expert that your solution deserves a spot at the Global Congress next year? Select your country from the dropdown menu below and follow the instructions to submit your solution.

Submit your nomination

Submit your nomination to WSA Global

Select Country

Are you under the age of 26? You may also want to consider applying for the WSA Young Innovators!

Benefits Timeline Rules

WSA is a nomination-based award system, eligible for all UN member states.

Each country has a national WSA representation – the WSA National Expert. The WSA national experts are carrying out the local pre-selection for WSA through national contests or national expert panel selection. To participate in WSA, you need to be nominated by a WSA National Expert as the best national digital application in one of the 8 categories. Each country is eligible to nominate one project/solution per WSA category. Please note that a country’s local deadline for application may vary from the WSA Global deadline.

Benefits

WSA offers applicants global recognition, mentorship, and networking opportunities with industry leaders in 182 countries. Winners gain access to the WSA Global Congress, pitching sessions, tailored workshops, and exclusive promotion. Nominees also benefit from increased media exposure and expert feedback. More than an award, WSA provides lifelong integration into a global innovation ecosystem.
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How to Write a Strong WSA Application

1. Be clear and concise Use simple, direct sentences. Stick to the main points, jury members read many applications, so clarity makes a real difference.

2. Write like you're explaining to a 10-year-old Skip the jargon and technical language. Anyone reading your application should immediately understand what your solution does and why it matters. Use concrete examples.

3. Provide context for a global audience WSA jury members come from all over the world. Don't assume they share your local context, explain the specific challenges your community faces and why your solution is the right answer for your region.

4. Include a video A simple screen recording works great. Walk through your key features and benefits, and add English subtitles if you can (YouTube, Amara, and Kapwing all offer automatic subtitling).

5. Show financial sustainability Demonstrate that your project has diverse, stable funding. This could include grants, user subscriptions, partnerships, product revenue, or other sources.

6. Use AI and translation tools If English isn't your first language, tools like DeepL or Google Translate can help. AI tools can also help you refine clarity and flow, try prompts like "make this more concise" or "make this understandable to an international audience."

7. Give jury members access to your product If possible, provide a test account or temporary access. Nothing is more convincing than letting the jury experience your solution firsthand.

8. Demonstrate real impact, answer "so what?" Numbers alone aren't enough. Don't just say "5,000 downloads", explain what changed in people's lives as a result. Share both data and personal stories from real users.

9. Attach a slide deck If you have a pitch deck covering your solution, the problem, the technology, and your team, attach it. If sharing via Google Drive, make sure the link is set to public.

Timeline

The WSA Award starts during the open call, when National Experts start receiving submissions. Once the National Experts have all submitted the nominations for their countries, the nominations undergo a jury process:

Jury Process

The WSA Jury process is a strictly democratic and transparent system to guarantee a fair and diverse selection of worldwide digital innovation. Once a digital solution is nominated for the WSA, it has to pass several stages of evaluation and assessment before it can become a WSA Winner and maybe even a Global Champion.
Timeline Jury Process

WSA rules & conditions

WSA looks for digital applications that have a strong impact on society in one of its categories, focusing on content depth, strategic value and local impact of a product.

By submission of a project, producers accept the rules of the WSA contests.

All submitters to WSA have to abide by the rules and regulations mentioned in the UN Declaration on Human Rights. Submissions which encourage war, the exercise of violence, fraud, racism or discrimination will therefore not be accepted and eliminated. Similarly, submissions that violate international copyright provisions will be excluded.

WSA cannot assume liability for the contents and rights of accepted submissions.
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