Deadline: 30-Apr-21
UNESCO is currently seeking applications for the 2021 Viva Technology.
VivaTech is Europe’s biggest startup and tech event. Co-organized by Publicis Groupe and Groupe Les Echos and dedicated to the growth of startups, digital transformation, and innovation, the 5th edition will take place on June 16-19, 2021.
Challenges
- Conserving our Biodiversity: Help them harness AI to preserve our Planet – The latest global scientific assessment found that human activity has resulted in the severe alteration of more than 75 percent of Earth’s land areas. The biomass of wild mammals has fallen by 82 percent, natural ecosystems have lost about half their area and a million species are at risk of extinction. Nature and biodiversity are essential for the regulation of environmental cycles and maintenance of the health of the planet.
- Gender bias and discrimination: Help to reduce the gender digital divide by exposing bias in AI – AI feeds on biased data-sets, amplifying the existing gender bias in our societies. The technology is perpetuating harmful stereotypes of women as submissive and subservient. Is it any wonder when only 22% of AI professionals globally are women? Data indicates that although women publish as much research in science, tech, engineering and AI as men, their ideas do not receive an equal platform to men’s. UNESCO as part of the EQUALS global partnership aims at narrowing the gender digital divide and partners with stakeholders from civil society, private sector and academia to address these challenges.
- Cracking the Language Barrier through Data and AI: Help them strengthen access to information in low resource languages – The lack of information and resources available to the vast majority of people can sometimes be staggering: it is estimated that just ten major languages represent more than 90% of websites globally. This at a time when at least half of the world’s 7,000 spoken languages are in danger of disappearing entirely.
Rewards
- Be in VivaTech
- Presence on stage at VivaTech
- 5 free Startup passes for the 4 days of VivaTech
- A startup booth at VivaTech 2022
- Connection to the ecosystem
- A meeting with UNESCO teams
- Be highlighted by UNESCO
- Highlight the challenge solutions on UNESCO web and see what could be done to develop and deploy the solutions through incubation in partnership with the private sector (no engagement) in line with UNESCO’s programming in field offices.
Eligibility Criteria
- Respond to pressing development challenges at local, national or regional levels;
- Enable the visualization of data in an innovative and/or easy-to-understand way;
- Mobilize and create engagement of variety of stakeholders and sectors in society;
- Gender-sensitive prototype, recognizing or encouraging women’s participation in sustainable development;
- Functioning solution: An important point is, is the prototype or showcase functioning? They prefer real code and design implementations over mockups;
- Platform: Share information about what operating systems or devices can your hack run on;
- Resources: Include information about API, SDK, or data set, that are required to run the app;
- New vs Existing solutions: Any work done needs to be new for the competition. Existing solutions are not eligible. However the specific details what is acceptable and what is not will be determined by the jury. For example existing solutions that have been modified substantially and include entirely new functionality would still be eligible.
Selection Criteria
- All work shall be FOSS/Open Source in line with the commitment of UNESCO to ensure access to information and harness new technologies to improve people’s lives and tackle sustainable development challenges.
Judging Criteria
- Technical Implementation: The solution implements and uses technologies in an innovative way.
- Open Data and Open Knowledge: The solution is using open and accessible data and open knowledge in an innovative way to benefit the society.
- Usability and UX: The hack is an easy-to-use prototype and an intuitive application with a clear and easy to use UI.
- Benefit to Society: The solution has the potential to engage with a wide range of actors in the society for sustainable development.
- Scalability and Replicability: It is possible to scale the solution and replicate it in different contexts.
- Inclusiveness: The solution targets and involves, both in its inception and deployment, women, youth, and otherwise marginalized groups.
For more information, visit https://challenges.vivatechnology.com/en/challenges/unesco