Over 100,000 Euros is up for grabs for Africa’s top innovators who participated Siemens Stiftung’s “empowering people award”, with the award ceremony slated to take place in Nairobi Kenya come October 30, 2013.
Run by the Siemens Stiftung Foundation, the award aims to “to identify simple and appropriate technological solutions and to make them visible and accessible to everyone, to enable the sustainable improvement in the supply of basic needs in developing countries.”
This year’s competition was officially launched in June last year, where over 800 qualified inventions from 90 countries were submitted by January 2013. The Top, first and second runners up will receive Euros 50,000, 30,000 and 20,000 respectively, with the remaining 20 finalists taking home 5,000 Euros each.
“The entries on our shortlist illustrate in an impressive manner how simple technical solutions can dramatically change living conditions for the better,” said Rolf Huber, managing director, Siemens Stiftung.
The competition was first launched in June 2012 at the UN Summit for Sustainable Development in Rio de Janeiro, where inventors and developers around the world were called upon to submit their tested, simple tech innovations in seven crucial supply categories.