Smart Cities - EUROPE

Le Monde Innovation Awards

RULES OF THE CONTEST

« LE MONDE » INNOVATION AWARD SMART CITIES 2018

Article 1: Purpose

The publishing company Le Monde, a French public limited company with Group Management and Supervisory Boards with a capital of €94,610,348.70, with registered offices at 80, boulevard Auguste-Blanqui, 75707 Paris Cedex 13, France, registered in the Paris Trade Register under no. 433 891 850, is organising a competition, entitled the “Le Monde Smart Cities Innovation Awards”, rewarding international innovative solutions to improve urban life.

Article 2: Presentation of the competition

2.1 Definition of the Smart Cities concept. Smart cities are aimed at improving services and quality of living, resilience, environmental protection, cost-cutting, deeper democracies, and the development of social or cultural projects. It fosters effective integration of technologies, all the while fundamentally drawing inspiration from the experience and expectations of citizens.

2.2 Purpose of awards. These Awards are aimed at recognising the best innovations in urban transformation, for their originality, effectiveness and impact on the daily life of a district or city in Europe.

2.3 The awards described above are aimed at promoting innovations that deserve to be publicised so that their example can be followed or adapted. The innovations can be initiated by municipalities, companies, associations or even individuals. The idea is not to reward institutions, but concrete solutions being implemented by one or several of the players mentioned above.

Article 3: Presentation of the awards categories

3.1 Six Awards

The Urban Innovation Award will reward a technological and/or social and/or circular economy innovation applied to the city.

The Civic Engagement Award will reward a democratic, horizontal process whereby citizens play a role in developing and managing physical and virtual urban spaces and services. This award will be presented in partnership with the INTA (the International Urban Development Association).

The Mobility Award will go to a project that fosters mobility on a more life-size scale, more economical and respectful of the environment.

The Habitat Award and Urban Planning award will reward an innovative project in terms of urban living space (residential, offices, new materials, etc.).

The Energy Award will reward a project that seeks to reduce the carbon footprint of cities by either reducing their consumption or improving their energy efficiency.

The Cultural Action Award will reward a social and/or digital innovation in the approach to urban cultural activities.

The jury reserves the right not to award any of the prizes in the event where none of the projects presented is deemed sufficiently innovative. 

3.2 Special awards

A Grand Prize will be awarded by the judging panel for the project that stands out most for its innovative approach.

In addition, two “Urban Strategy” awards will be granted to give visibility to comprehensive city improvement undertakings. The judging panel will take care to ensure that cities of differing sizes are commended.

3.3 Special student award

This year, Le Monde is partnering with the University of Lyon's Urban School to launch the first Le Monde - Lyon Urban School 'Special Student Award'. This award will be given to a project from any category by one or more students. The contest is also open to students and recent graduates in 2016. For these individuals, the project does not necessarily have to enter an operational phase, but must bring out a roadmap or a business plan.

The prize will be awarded to an innovative and original city-focused project submitted by students. Projects should give details of how they will be implemented in practical terms. 

Candidates wishing to put themselves forward for the student award should simply submit a detailed project on the Agorize Le Monde platform in the relevant category, and indicate that they are a student or a young graduate when registering. 

The recipient of the award will be decided by the Le Monde Smart Cities jury and will receive €1500. They will also be the subject of an article on the Le Monde website.

Article 4: Presentation of applicants

Open to all individuals, private companies, public municipal associations or institutions, this competition offers the opportunity to participate at either the European or World level. 

Applicants for the European competition must present projects developed in Europe, as defined by the Council of Europe  (http://elections-en-europe.net/institutions/organisations-intergouvernementales/liste-des-pays-membres-du-conseil-de-leurope/).

Applicants for the World-Wide Competition must present projects developed in parts of the world other than Europe.

It is the project’s place of deployment that is taken into account in the respective competitions, not the applicants’ place of residence. Projects may be submitted only to one category.

Both the Europe and World-Wide competitions are intended to commend projects by companies, start-ups, municipal governments, associations, NGOs, foundations, neighbourhoods, citizens or citizen groups.

An application not commended one year remains eligible to compete another year, provided that the applicant confirms interest in participating and, if necessary, updates the documents submitted.

Article 5: Applications

5.1 To be valid, all applications must contain: 

- A link to a video presentation not exceeding three minutes on YouTube,  DailyMotion or Vimeo, along with an introductory text not exceeding 3,000 characters and an English-language abstract of approximately 1,000 characters.

Your introductory text should include a description of your initiative, its aim(s), the type of innovation, the expected impact, the projected schedule, players, cost and funding. 

The introductory video and presentation text may be in French, English and Spanish. The abstract, in contrast, must be English. 

- A photo or scanned copy of an official document to prove:

Either the identity of each person in charge of the project or representative of the informal consortium behind the project;

Or the legal existence of the public authority, company, association or institution, as applicable.

– Applicants must provide a postal address, e-mail address and telephone number where they can be reached as well as the duly completed agreement for the transfer of copyright for the use of the works presented.

5.2 Applicants to the competition must send a full application by 13 May 2018 at midnight at the latest (UTC +1), with the clock on the servers of the LeMonde.fr website being used as the official timekeeper. 

Applications must be uploaded to the Agorize platform dedicated to the competition. The address is as follows: https://www.agorize.com/fr/challenges/le-monde-smart-cities-2018-europe 

Applications received by e-mail or postal mail will not be accepted.

Should you have any questions regarding the application process, you may contact the organising team at smartcities@lemonde.fr

5.4 A judging panel composed of “Le Monde” journalists and international experts (researchers, urban planners, architects, entrepreneurs, and local-level public or private players) will name, based on the applications received, one winner in each category, for each edition (Europe and World).

The European Awards Ceremony will take place in April 2018, in Lyon. 

The World-Wide Awards Ceremony will take place in July 2018, in Singapore.

Article 6: Awards

Each award-winner will receive a €1,000 check, while the Grand Prize will carry an award of €2,000.

All winning projects will be written up in an article to be published on Le Monde's website.


Article 7: Verification procedures

The participants authorise their identity to be verified by the publishing company Le Monde. These verification procedures will be carried out strictly in accordance with legal provisions concerning data privacy. Any indication that the identity is false, fraudulent, untrue, incorrect or inexact will lead to cancellation of the person’s participation in the competition.

The publishing company Le Monde reserves the right to report the first name(s), surname(s) and town of residence of the participants and the winners for the purposes of public relations in the context of the competition, without thereby conferring on them any right to remuneration or any benefits other than participation in the competition and, if applicable, the competition prizes

Article 8: Exemption from liability

The publishing company Le Monde will not be liable for any malfunctioning of the internet network and/or telecommunications networks preventing access to the website lemonde.fr/smartcities. In particular, the publishing company Le Monde shall not be held liable for any malicious acts from outside. 

Article 9: Interpretation and modification of the Terms and Conditions of the competition 

The publishing company Le Monde reserves the right, if circumstances so require, to shorten, extend, postpone, change or cancel the competition at any time, without incurring any liability whatsoever.
 

Article 10: Applicable law

These terms and conditions are governed exclusively by French law.
 

Article 11: Data protection

In accordance with the provisions of the data protection law of 6 January 1978, applicants are entitled to access, rectify or delete their personal data by writing to the competition address smartcities@lemonde.fr