The U.S. Embassy, the American Chamber of Commerce Estonia (AmCham Estonia) and the Baltic American Freedom Foundation (BAFF) announce the opening of the 2016 American Innovation Award competition to honor the innovative spirit and U.S-Estonian collaboration. The award, established in 2011, recognizes the best and brightest when it comes to innovation and all that it encompasses from business and commerce to arts and civil society. We encourage all innovative companies, non-profits and individuals to apply.Applications will be accepted from 1 October to 2 November 2015.
“The Estonian American Innovation Award was a significant recognition to our mostly US-Estonian team,” said Rainer Sternfeld, founder and CEO of Planet OS, an award winner in 2015. “It provided the necessary validation, visibility and encouragement to pursue our vision of bringing the planet’s heartbeat to everyone’s fingertips.” Aside from Planet OS, past recipients have included companies like GrabCAD, ZeroTurnaround and Fortumo.
BAFF will award the winner €10,000 euro as well as present a special newcomer award of €5,000 euro. FACEBOOK will present a special “CREATIVITY & SOCIAL IMPACT” award specifically for innovation in the use of social media.
The competition is open to Estonian residents, firms, and organizations that have distinguished themselves through innovation in collaboration with a U.S. counterpart. Further details are available here.
The jury consists of entrepreneurs and innovators from both sides of the Atlantic. The decision criteria will be based on several factors, primarily creativity, impact or clear potential impact of the innovation, along with a demonstrated collaboration with a U.S. entity. The winner will be announced in January 2016 at a special ceremony with keynote speaker Andrew Bowell, Chief Disrupter, Technology Vision and Strategy for Printing and Personal Systems at Hewlett-Packard.
For further information contact: Daria Sivovol at daria@amcham.ee or +372 631 0522.
