At the 2016 EU edition of the NWO-MVI conference, a responsible innovation contest was launched, aimed at students, young researchers, designers and entrepreneurs. The challenge: create an innovative responsible design or idea to solve an urgent societal problem. Participants from different universities, universities of applied sciences, companies and other organisations are invited to work together in interdisciplinary teams and send in their video before 1 Nov 2016, 09.00 hrs.

Screenshot video NWO MVI Award 2016. Click to play on YouTube

Goal

The contest is launched to create awareness for responsible innovation and to draw attention to the knowledge, the practices and the tools that are (being) developed in the NWO-MVI programme to enhance responsible innovation in society.

Prize

The winning team receives a prize that that can be devoted to the further development or realization of the idea or to further professionalization (in the field of MVI) of the team members (think of an international conference or a training module, etc.). Also, members of the jury and NWO MVI will adopt the winning idea and see how they can contribute to the further development and realisation of it.

Playing rules

  • Entries should have the form of a (basic) video film, which is no longer than 5 minutes. Be sure the video does not contain any material (footage, pictures, music) of which you do not own the copyright. Text should be in English.
  • Entries should be send in by interdisciplinary teams (different backgrounds and if posssible also a mix of academic participants with young professionals from industry or the public sector. Average age of the team should be below 35.
  • Entries should be send in no later than Tuesday 1 November 2016 at 09.00 a.m. CET via We Transfer (or comparable drop box) to mvi@nwo.nl (subject: MVI-Award 2016). Add a document in which you state the composition of your team and the backgrounds of all members, and state who will be contact person on behalf of the team (e-mail address).

The challenge

Create an innovative responsible design or idea to solve an urgent societal problem. Your “design” can also be an idea, a plan, a concept or a policy measure – it does not have to be something physical. Your idea can be in the fields of energy, agri & food, artificial agents, ICT/Big Data/smart cities or health. Other domains are possible as well (chemistry/bio-economy, creative industry, logistics, water sector), provided your solution always involves a design in the sense given above.

Examples for great responsible ideas are for instance: special drones that can carry medical supplies and instruments to the place of an accident, street lighting on demand, the Fairphone (a sustainable smartphone that combines different sort of conflicting values into one single design), the green search engine Ecosia on the internet that plants trees, all kinds of smart ‘sharing’ platforms on the internet, and so on. To get inspired also have a look at:

Participants

We encourage all kinds of young people to participate: whether you are an engineer or a philosopher or a social scientist – everything is possible as long as you cooperate in an interdisciplinary team. Participants can come from universities, including the ones for applied science, but also from industries, governments or NGO’s. You are strongly advised to collaborate in interdisciplinary teams.

You can ask your teachers to work on the entry during classes. Are you a teacher yourself: You can contact Jasper Roodenburg (see contact details below) for further information.

Procedure

After 1 November a jury will look at all the entries and make a shortlist of three entries that are meeting the criteria in the best way. These entries will be presented at an event in December. We will communicate the date and location later on. The audience there votes who will be the winner.

Criteria

The jury will look at the videos with the following main questions:

  • How innovative is the design?
  • How responsible is it? What ethical and societal issues are taken into account?
  • How big is the problem, and how effective the solution?
  • Is the idea also fit for further exploration and implementation?

The jury

At the moment there are four members; the jury will be completed with one or two professionals from society (entrepreneurs / public or public sector). Members:

  • Peter-Paul Verbeek (University of Twente)
  • Lotte Krabbenborg (Radboud University)
  • Masi Mohammadi (HAN University of Applied Sciences)
  • Victor Scholten (Delft University of Technology)
  • Vacancy

More information

More information can be obtained via Jasper Roodenburg (j.roodenburg@nwo.nl), programme officer of the Responsible Innovation programme.

This site will be regularly updated, so please come back here for the most recent information (www.nwo.nl/mvi-award).