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31.05.2012

The Young Innovators Competition is a component of ITU Telecom World 2012. It is aimed at talented youth aged 18-25 from ITU member states (Armenia is a member state, for full list of member states please visit www.itu.int/members/index.html). The theme for this year’s competition is “Youth Innovation for Development”. Submissions must be relevant to at least one of the following seven issue areas: Education, Youth Employment, Empowerment of Women, Human Rights, Healthcare, Environmental Sustainability, Transparency, and Cyber Security. 

Applications are invited for two categories: 

• Concepts: well-researched and documented ideas that have not yet been published or implemented; and 
• Projects: on-going operations showing preliminary results (e.g. prototypes) and in need of support to scale their impact. 

The Application form, as well as detailed application guidelines are available at

http://world2012.itu.int/young-innovators-competition. 

Applicants may work with a team but only one designated person will be invited to the Event and granted fellowship. 

The key milestones of the competition are briefly described below: 

The Deadline: Submissions should be made in English via the event website

http://world2012.itu.int/young-innovators-competition by July 1st 2012 at 24 hours GMT. Applicants will be able to enter and update more than one submission up to three times in either category up to the deadline. 

The Selection: On September 1st 2012, the Selection Committee will announce the twelve (12) finalists on the website. All twelve finalists will receive a fellowship to facilitate their participation at ITU Telecom World 2012. The fellowship will cover travel and accommodation expenses and include a daily subsidiary allowance (DSA). 

The Event: From October 13 to 18th, the twelve finalists will be joined by winners of our 2011 competition and representatives of the seven United Arab Emirates (UAE). Participation in the event will include the following activities: mentorship, workshops, networking, visibility. 

Interviews & Presentations: Finalists will be interviewed and asked to present their submissions to the Selection Committee (consisting of the mentors) and an audience of event participants. Finalists will be evaluated and ranked to determine their award. 

The Award: On October 18th winners will be presented an award certificate by the Director of the ITU Development Bureau (BDT), the Patron of this year’s competition. The 2012 Award will include the following components: 

Funding: Winners in the Concept category will receive between three and five thousand Swiss Francs, and those in the project category will receive between five and ten thousand Swiss Francs. The level of funding will be determined by the Selection Committee based on the need expressed by the applicant, the quality of the submission (innovativeness, business potential, social impact potential, likelihood of success and bonus points) and the result of the interview. 

Mentorship: Access to our network of mentors for a period of one year. 

Networking & Knowledge Sharing: Access to our growing Young Innovators community. 

Visibility: Winners’ submissions will be featured on the event website. Winners will have the opportunity to regularly update their feature with progress reports as projects are implemented. They will also be encouraged to provide quarterly reports to enable the organizer to better assist them. 

For Competition Overview, Terms and Conditions, Evaluation Criteria and other additional information on the competition please visit http://world2012.itu.int/young-innovators-competition or contact [email protected].