The BRICS Young Innovator Prize is a special recognition of young talented entrepreneurs and researchers, whose outstanding innovations (inventions, products, applications, and services) will make a profound impact on the socio-economic, environment, and condition of life in BRICS societies. The BRICS Young Innovator Prize is a platform for BRICS young scientists and entrepreneurs to share their best practices in innovation and venturing.
This initiative was introduced in 2018, during South Africa’s BRICS Chairship. A total of five installments of the BRICS Young Innovator Prize have been held successfully and it has become an important stage for BRICS youths to display their innovation talents and strengthen exchanges and cooperation. The winner of the Young Innovator Prize will be granted through contests among the youths from BRICS countries. The upcoming 6th BRICS Young Innovator Prize will be convened in person as part of the 7th BRICS Young Scientist Forum which will be held from 31ST of July, until the 3rd of August 2023 South Africa.
TIA is a national public entity that serves as the key institutional intervention to bridge the innovation chasm between research and development from higher education institutions, science councils, public entities, the private sector, and commercialization. TIA’s focus is on technology development; from proof of concept to pre-commercialization. To achieve this, TIA established the following funds: the Seed Fund, the Technology Development Fund, and the Commercialisation Support Fund. In order to deal with the effective implementation of these funds, TIA implemented pre- and post-investment processes to improve client management, turnaround times, and post-approval support to existing and new technology projects within the TIA portfolio.
The mandate of TIA is derived from the provisions of the Technology Innovation Act (Act 26 of 2008), which establishes TIA to promote the development and exploitation, in the public interest, of discoveries, inventions, innovations, and improvements. The object of TIA is to support the State in stimulating and intensifying technological innovation in order to improve economic growth and the quality of life of all South Africans by developing and exploiting technological innovations.
Location:
South AfricaBenefits
- First Place prize – $ 25 000
- Second Place prize – $ 15 000
- Third Place prize – $ 10 000
Eligibilities
- The Innovations shall focus on the following 5 thematic areas:
-
- Modernizing manufacturing;
- Modernizing agriculture;
- Modernizing mining;
- Digital and Circular economies;
- The innovations should emanate from universities, research institutes, or registered enterprises in line with a BRICS member country’s law;
- The project must be innovative and has been transformed from scientific and technological achievements;
- The innovation should be in a phase of limited product testing, discontinuous production, certification, or preparation of the product for market;
- The innovation should not infringe upon the intellectual property of any third party and the Intellectual Property Rights (including patent, standard, thesis, etc.) and must be owned by the project team members;
- The age of the applicant must be under 40 years and a citizen of a BRICS country; and
- Each applicant can only choose to compete in one project field for the awards.
Application Process
- All Applications are to be submitted by email to [email protected] by the 26th May 2023 Close of Business(16h00 CAT), with all supporting documents as per the application template.
Application Deadline: May 26, 2023
Application ClosedOfficial link
