European Awards for two Swiss social innovation projects

With its ‘Press for More’ award, iMinds – Flanders’ digital research center – recognizes a European project that contributes to better journalism through the use of technological innovation. The winning project typically stimulates participation, has a strong impact and significant growth potential.

A total of 29 impressive projects from 15 European countries had been submitted for the award. Nevertheless, the jury members unanimously voted for one specific project to receive the ‘Press for More’ award 2015 on May 3. The winner – Swiss OBVIZ.com helps people explore and understand controversies. It addresses the lack of structured information on the internet on controversial subjects using cutting edge artificial intelligence. If you need to make a decision, like vaccinating your child or not, the outcome will be very different depending on what article you happen to read first. Most people don't have an expert that they can just ask, so they need trustworthy information. And that is exactly the role OBVIZ.com has taken up. ObViz (Opinion Based Visualization) is an initiative of the Artificial Intelligence Lab at EPFL, based in Lausanne

EIT Change Award goes to LEDsafari
The Change Award of the European Institute of Innovation and Technology celebrates graduates from EIT labelled education programmes (including Climate-KIC) that spur innovation and entrepreneurship and bring about change. The EIT Innovation Jury selected the winner during INNOVEIT. Taking place from 5 to 7 May, the Forum brings together more than 600 entrepreneurs, researchers, policy makers, business leaders and students from across Europe. The Forum is organised by the European Institute of Innovation and Technology (EIT), an independent body of the EU set up to develop new ways to boost successful entrepreneurship and innovation.

LEDsafari, the winner of this year’s Change Award has designed an innovative solar lamp, made up of only five carefully chosen electrical components, which can be self-assembled by anyone. It is the cheapest solar lamp available ($ 5.00), which has the potential to replace kerosene lamps ($ 2.00 per week for fuel). It can be assembled without prior technical knowledge, using locally available material, and is easy to repair at village level after some basic training.

Over 1.6 billion people worldwide have no access to electricity and rely on kerosene lamps for lighting, a harmful and expensive solution, which emits high quantities of CO₂. Existing solar lights are too often hard to repair at village level, are expensive and are difficult to handle for people who are not familiar with new technology. This represents a big barrier for people to switch to a modern and safe energy form such as solar light.

More information about the award at the EIT website.