Deadline: 15-Jul-23
Do you have an idea for a project? Or want to contribute to a project? If yes, then start your application to ‘MEDIA LOVES TECH’ competition that seeks to identify the best digital concepts for innovative and quality journalism.
Launched by DW Akademie and Al Khatt, this competition is open to journalists, “start-uppers”, project leaders, creative minds, developers, designers, civil society members, any individual or organization that wish to innovate and in this way make a contribution to a quality media landscape in Tunisia, Morocco and Algeria.
MEDIA LOVES TECH is an initiative by DW Akademie, a leading organization in Germany for international media development, and Al Khatt, a Tunisian NGO which works for the freedom of expression and is a laboratory of ideas on the future of journalism in the age of the internet. This project is financed by the Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development of Germany (BMZ).
The competition is organized by DW Akademie and takes place from June to December 2023. It takes place in two stages.
Benefits
- MEDIA LOVES TECH gives you access to a quality ecosystem:
- flexibility with different knowledge inputs such as online trainings and masterclasses
- experts on demand
- networking opportunities, even after the end of the program
- a community of entrepreneurs and experts
- The winner receives an award of 10 000 Euro.
Eligibility Criteria
- This competition is open to journalists, “start-uppers”, project leaders, creative minds, developers, designers, civil society members, any individual or organization that wish to innovate and in this way make a contribution to a quality media landscape in Tunisia, Morocco and Algeria.
- The competition is open to all persons who are over 18 years old at the time of their registration (hereinafter “eligible participants”). Journalists, developers, designers, data scientists, creatives, technologists, individuals or representatives of organizations, are invited to submit with concepts or to be part of a team.
- The following are not eligible as participants: the directors of DW Akademie, the members of the jury and the persons with whom they are domiciled, the mentors and the persons with whom they are domiciled.
At what stage must my projects be in order to participate?
- MEDIA LOVES TECH is a pre-incubation competition: from the idea to the creation of a prototype solution. All projects that fall within this stage of the entrepreneurial project are accepted. The projects must also be in the pre-marketing phase, which means that they have not recorded any sales or have no registered customers.
How is the selection made? What are the criteria?
- Stage 1:
- Selected teams will have the opportunity to continue the development of their project during the incubation phase in October and November 2023.
- What is the problem you are solving, is the project tackling a specific and necessary problem?
- Innovation: the level of innovation of the concept in solving the problem
- Market: why is it interesting and relevant, have you identified a target audience who would like to use your product?
- How it works? What features are at the heart of your product? What roadmap for implementation?
- Business model: which business model for the sustainability of the project?
- Project team: ability of the team to test and implement the innovation suggested
- Feasibility: feasibility of the proposed concept in the time available and considering the resources available
- Stage 2:
- The teams participating in the incubation phase will continue to work on their product to submit the prototypes before the deadline in November 2023. The team which will win € 10,000 will be announced on the 7th of December 2023. The price will be awarded in stages according to the progress of the realization of the project.
- Innovation: the level of innovation of the concept in solving the problem
- User experience: is the interface user-friendly and easy to use (depending on the target audience of the product)
- Functionality: operating level of the prototype and level of technological innovation
- Implementation: what plan for the implementation and promotion of the product in the future (roadmap)?
- Project team: level of collaboration of the team, their capacity and motivation to ensure the sustainability of the project (during open-innovation challenges, it is not only a question of creating new ideas. Collaboration and co -creation are also main objectives).
For more information, visit MEDIA LOVES TECH Competition.