The final countdown

Fifty-five of the 688 proposals submitted to the Advocate Europe ideas challenge have made it to the shortlist and are one step closer to possibly winning financial support of up to 50,000 Euros. We are in awe of all the inspiring, challenging and creative proposals submitted this year – and are resting now after reading them all. Over the past weeks the preselection team from Advocate Europe and Stiftung Mercator read through each proposal on average at least three times, checked the formal and content criteria, and put together the shortlist from which up to 12 winning projects will be chosen. For the first time, we are publishing this list here!

The formats and topics of the 55 shortlisted ideas are as diverse as the applications themselves. Among them are artistic and political interventions in the public space, several media projects, and many connecting and exchanging events. Storytelling around the refugee situation is the main topic among the shortlisted applications this year. Compared to last year, there is also an increase in the number of proposals on the shortlist concerning democracy and participation. Many of these proposals aim at the co-creation and crowdsourcing of solutions to common societal challenges, such as climate change, food production and urban housing.

The winners of the Community Awards are:

1st place: Euro Education

2nd place: Into Society though Sport

3rd place: End Ecocide on Earth – Crimes against Nature and Crimes against Peace and Humanity.

The five projects with the most received votes are automatically among the project ideas on this year’s shortlist: Euro Education, Into Society though Sport, End Ecocide on Earth – Crimes against Nature and Crimes against Peace and Humanity, Discourse on Inequality and Food Biodiversity: eat it to save it!

In May 2016 our expert jury will take over and select up to 12 winning projects. We will announce the winners on our website by end of June 2016. Stay tuned!