Siemens Stiftung "empowering people." Award 2015

The “empowering people. Award 2015”, launched last July, has attracted innovators and developers around the world. They entered products and solutions in the most relevant categories of basic supply designed to tackle challenges faced by those living in the poorest regions of the world. Alongside the 23 winning solutions, the most promising entries will be showcased in the Siemens Stiftung’s Solutions Database making the innovations accessible to the public. 

“We are impressed with the response to the Award which demanded increased application requirements this time around. 810 products and solutions entered from 88 countries is evidence that creative minds from around the globe are active in helping to combat challenges in basic supply. The “empowering people. Network” is once again at hand to support these solutions grow and develop their full potential so they can benefit people in need,” commented Rolf Huber, Managing Director of the Siemens Stiftung.

Most of the submissions entered originated from India and Kenya with the majority of innovations in the Energy and Food & Agriculture categories. In the coming weeks these inventions will be judged based on their degree of technical innovation, feasibility of business model and the scale of social impact they can achieve. The “empowering people” online community, which has been growing rapidly over the last few years, again showed their support by nominating dozens of organizations with appropriate solutions in the ENTERepA campaign. Those who have nominated one of the winning solutions will receive an invitation to the Award Ceremony. 

A team of experts from the fields of technology, development work and social entrepreneurship will now begin the evaluation process and compile a shortlist of the most promising entries. Eighteen jurors, who were selected due to their experience in working in different fields of development cooperation, will then select the top three Award winners. This shortlist will be published in the coming summer when the online community will also be given the opportunity to vote for their favorite solution. The Award Ceremony will take place in the fall and include an international workshop for members of the “empowering people. Network” of innovators and social entrepreneurs from around the world.

The Siemens Stiftung will award a sum of 50,000 Euros to the top prize winner. The second prize is a total of 30,000 Euros and the third prize a total of 20,000 Euros. A further twenty finalists will be awarded 5,000 Euros each and a Community Prize with hardware to the value of 3,000 Euros will be selected by the online community.