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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, 1997).

 

  • 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, 1997).
  • Submissions for the WSA Young Innovators can contain all mobile and web-based solutions, 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 solutions work with.
  • All submissions have to be launched products. No drafts, ideas or unfinished projects can be accepted.

 

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WSA database submission guide for applications

The application procedure for the WSA & WSA Young Innovators requires detailed information on your product that you have to provide in the WSA Contest Database.

 

GENERAL GUIDELINES

  • Please be short and precise and make your digital solution easy to understand. Avoid overly long sentences and complicated technical terms.
  • Please fill in your application only in ENGLISH.
  • Please make sure that the URL to your solution and the e-mail you provided works!
  • Please be aware that an international jury is evaluating your solution. E.g. if your solution cannot be downloaded from the Play Store in some countries, please make sure that you give enough information, provide screenshots or a comprehensive presentation for the jurors.
  • We advise to first do your application in a word document and then copy paste to the database for easier structuring.
  • WSA tries to keep the application as short as possible, hence we advise to fill in all fields, even if they are not obligatory.
  • Please read the Rules and Conditions section carefully before applying. By submission of a solution, producers accept the Rules and Conditions of the WSA contest!

WSA YOUNG INNOVATORS DATABASE MANUAL 2023

Tips and tricks for your application

 

DO YOU HAVE AN EXPLANATORY VIDEO ABOUT YOUR SOLUTION?

  • Please provide a short video about your solution. It should be short and explanatory, giving a good impression about what your solution is about.
  • Jury members prefer to view a video to get a first impression and to understand what your digital innovation is about before they go into screening the text provided.
  • If possible, the video should be in high resolution, but can be also a simple video showing your digital innovation, or a marketing video you have.
  • The video is not obligatory, but we highly recommend it.

SHORT DESCRIPTION OF YOUR DIGITAL SOLUTION

  • Short description of your digital solution (2-3 sentences).
  • This should give the jury the first impression about your digital solution, what issue does it solve and a good summary.
  • WSA office will use this text as a basis for PR, promotion on social media or the WSA webpage.

WHICH LOCAL PROBLEM DO YOU SOLVE WITH YOUR SOLUTION?

  • Give the jury a concrete summary of what issue your solution addresses and why it makes an impact.

HOW DO YOU SOLVE THE PROBLEM WITH YOUR SOLUTION?

  • Please provide in this field comprehensive, detailed information about your digital solution.
  • Concretely, how are you solving the described problem? Describe what your solution achieves/aims for, give details on how it works.
  • Please summarize the most important aspects of your solution in a nutshell. It should give the jurors a short overview, an easy insight into the purpose of the solution and point out the general outlay.
  • Please be precise and on point, and give a solid impression on your solution.

TELL US MORE ABOUT THE LOCAL CONTEXT OF YOUR SOLUTION

  • WSA Young Innovators is about local content – explain why your solution is relevant locally and how it makes an impact in your country. Make sure to specify the local circumstances and help the international jury to understand why your solution is locally relevant.

STAGE OF YOUR SOLUTION

  • Please let us know in which phase you are with your solution. Select the what fits best to your phase: established, fully-functioning, testing phase, beta-version.
  • If you chose testing or beta phase, please let us know detailed when a launch is planned, and what still needs to be done.

COMPETITION/COMPARISON - WHO IS DOING SOMETHING SIMILAR?

  • Who are your competitors? What´s your comparative advantage / USP?

WHAT IS/ARE THE TARGET GROUP(S) OF YOUR SOLUTION?

  • Please be as precise as possible (e.g. young mothers, children, unemployed, specific regions)
  • Who are the users?
  • What is the intended impact?

TELL US MORE ABOUT YOUR TEAM!

  • Introduce yourself and/or your team to prove you fulfill the youth criteria.
  • Do you have an advisory board, mentors, investors?
  • Who is your team? What’s your governance structure? How many people are working for your solution? Who is the leading team?
  • Give some information about your bio/personal experiences and describe the structure of your team, if applicable.

WHAT IS MOTIVATING YOU AND YOUR TEAM?

  • Tell the jury members what is motivating you and your team?
  • Please explain what you want to achieve with your digital innovation & why you are doing it. What is your motivation, what are the goals you pursue with your solution? Tell the jurors what is motivating you, which problem you try to solve with your digital solution and which goals you aim to achieve.

IMPACT AND ACHIEVEMENTS OF YOUR SOLUTION

  • What is the impact of your solution?
  • Which milestones have you already achieved? (e.g. number of costumers, users, partners, countries...)
  • What is the measurable impact in your community so far?

WHICH OF THE 17 UN SDG(S) ARE YOU TACKLING WITH YOUR SOLUTION?

WHAT IS THE DIGITAL COMPONENT OF YOUR SOLUTION?

  • Leave blank if obvious.

DOES YOUR SOLUTION INVOLVE ANY OF THE FOLLOWING TECHNOLOGIES?

  • AR; VR; AI; Big Data; Blockchain; Deep learning; IoT; Wearables; 3D Printing; NLP; Robotics.

IF NECESSARY, PLEASE SHARE SOME INFORMATION IF AND HOW THE JURY CAN TEST YOUR SOLUTION

  • Please share some information if and how the jury members can test your solution. Provide login data/download links/tutorials etc.
  • Please provide some tips for the jurors on how they should navigate through your solution. This is the section to pinpoint which areas/sections the jurors should have a special focus on.

SUSTAINABILITY / BUSINESS MODEL

  • How economically sustainable is your solution over the long term?
  • Share some information about your business / revenue model.

 

APPLICATION FORM TEMPLATE FOR WSA YOUNG INNOVATORS