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" Ars Electronica | S+T+ARTS Prize Africa "

Ars Electronica | S+T+ARTS Prize Africa

S+T+ARTS awards projects of arts and technology that address the pressing issues of the African continent

S+T+ARTS = innovation at the nexus of Science, Technology, and the ARTS: STARTS is an initiative of the European Commission to foster alliances of science, technology, and artistic practice. The focus is on people and projects that contribute to mastering the social, ecological, and economic challenges. 

The STARTS Prize Africa highlights and awards regional best practices in the field through the African edition of the well-known STARTS Prize. The STARTS Prize has been a major contributor in building the foundations of a community interlinking artists, companies, scientists, researchers, and businesses. From 2024, this movement has been enhanced with the STARTS Prize Africa. 

The STARTS Prize Africa welcomes innovative collaborations between art and science/tech that strive towards a positive social, humanitarian, economic or political impact and promote a diverse and sustainable society. Embracing the powerful intersection of arts and technology, it supports endeavors that address the pressing issues of the African continent. 

The STARTS Prize Africa recognizes the projects that use creativity to drive positive change and highlights examples of collaborations between individuals, collectives, and organizations from diverse sectors. We are especially interested in projects that focus on societal challenges and promote sustainable practices on the continent. 

INFO

AMOUNT

Prize Money: The STARTS Prize Africa prize money amounts to € 30.000 and will be distributed among:

Grand Prize of € 15.000
5 Awards of Distinction each € 3.000


APPLICATION DEADLINE

March 5, 2025


ELIGIBLE COUNTRIES
Austria - Belgium - Bulgaria - Croatia - Cyprus - Czech Republic - Denmark - Estonia - Finland - France - Germany - Greece - Hungary - Ireland, Republic of (EIRE) - Italy - Latvia - Lithuania - Luxembourg - Malta - Netherlands - Poland - Portugal - Romania - Slovakia - Slovenia - Spain - Sweden

ELIGIBILITY

- An artist group is eligible to apply if at least one member is an African citizen or resident and he/she/they are the ones to make a submission.
- The STARTS Prize Africa is offered to honour the initiatives made at the intersection of arts, science, and technology that strive towards a positive social, humanitarian, economic, environmental, or political impact and promote diverse and sustainable society.
- The projects should be driven by both technology and the arts. Purely artistic or technologically driven projects are not the focus of this competition.
- All forms of artistic works and practices with a link to innovation in technology, business and/or society are welcome. STARTS Prize Africa is not restricted to a particular genre such as media art and digital art. The competition is open to all forms of creative practices, be it music, performing and visual arts, film, animation, gaming, photography, VR and XR, design, fashion, architecture, journalism, art-science collaborations, citizen science initiatives, human-centered AI projects, new media applications, machine learning, biotechnology, art & science, material research, smart cities and citizen empowerment, robotics, and many more.
- The competition is open to applications from natural persons (such as individual creatives, artists or other professionals), groups of natural persons, legal entities (such as startups, associations, research and higher education institutions, public bodies, NGOs, companies, and other legally established organizations), and groups of legal entities (such as research consortia).
- Community initiatives may be submitted only by an authorized representative. This may be an individual or an organization as specified above.
- Every submitted project must be, at the time of its submission, either totally completed or far enough along for the jury to be able to assess its quality and the likelihood of it being successfully implemented. The same applies to collaborative arrangements—at the time they’re submitted, they must already be up-and-running and in the implementation stage. No consideration will be given to entries that are purely concepts, ideas or proposals for collaboration.
- Projects should not be older than two years or have to show a significant update or further development within the last two years. 


APPLICATION DETAILS

For all the submission details please visit the STARTS Prize Africa open call official website.

DEADLINE

2025-03-05


TYPE OF SUPPORT

Public funding


FUNDING COUNTRIES

All EU Countries


WEBSITE

KEYWORDS
AI - Audio-visual arts - Bio-art - Machine learning - Performing arts - Robotics - Science - Technology - Visual arts - Contemporary art - Virtual media art - New media - Trandisciplinary art practices - Digital arts