The STARTS Prize Africa – the inaugural African edition of the STARTS Prize – celebrates initiatives that strive towards a positive social, humanitarian, economic or political impact and promote a diverse and sustainable society in Africa. Embracing the powerful intersection of arts and technology, it supports endeavours that address the pressing issues of the region; foster ethical and inclusive progress; facilitate digital transformation within the creative sector.
The STARTS Prize Africa recognises initiatives that use creativity to drive positive change and highlights examples of collaborations between individuals, collectives, and organisations from diverse sectors. It is especially interested in projects that focus on societal challenges and promote sustainable practices on the continent.
Eligibility:
- The STARTS Prize Africa is not restricted to a particular genre or field. The competition is open to all forms of creative practices, be it music, performing and visual arts, film, animation, gaming, photography, VR and XR, design, fashion, architecture, journalism, art-science collaborations, citizen science initiatives, human-centered AI projects, social software, and many more.
- The competition is open to citizens and residents of all African countries, as well as legal entities registered on the continent.
- The competition is open to applications from natural persons (such as individual creatives, artists or other professionals), groups of natural persons, legal entities (such as startups, associations, research and higher education institutions, public bodies, NGOs, companies, and other legally established organisations), and groups of legal entities (such as research consortia).
- Community initiatives may be submitted only by an authorised representative. This may be an individual or an organisation as specified above.
- Every submitted project must be, at the time of its submission, either totally completed or far enough along for the jury to be able to assess its quality and the likelihood of it being successfully implemented. The same applies to collaborative arrangements—at the time they’re submitted, they must already be up-and-running and in the implementation stage. No consideration will be given to entries that are purely concepts, ideas or proposals for collaboration.
- Projects should not be older than two years or have to show a significant update or further development within the last two years.
- Initiatives consisting of or benefitting entities subject to EU sanctions are not eligible to apply.
The STARTS Prize Africa prize money amounts to € 30,000 and will be distributed among the Grand Prize of € 15,000 and five Awards of Distinction each € 3000.
The winner of the STARTS Prize Africa Grand Prize makes a commitment to accept the award in person at the Award Ceremony and to present the work at the STARTS Prize Forum. Both will take place during the Ars Electronica Festival on 4-8 September 2024 in Linz, Austria. Groups and institutions are requested to nominate a representative to fulfil this commitment.
If the submitted work is selected and honoured by the Jury, the artist is committed upon invitation to present the submitted work at the Ars Electronica Festival 2024, as well as at the consortium members’ events.