Telecentre Europe AISBL has established the Telecentre Europe Awards to recognise the achievements of individuals and organisations across Europe that enable people to get to grips with technology.

Thousands of individuals and hundreds of organisations around Europe work daily with communities to empower citizens through technology and the Internet: from teaching digital literacy and online safety to carrying out transactions with government and boosting entrepreneurship, from supporting young people’s employability to uniting different stakeholders for ensuring digital inclusion.

Telecentre Europe Awards acknowledge their innovation, dedication and the inspiring role they play to many people.

What we celebrate

In 2016, Telecentre Europe Awards recognised individuals and organisations in four different categories:

• Best E-Facilitator (individual) – find out more
  
• Best Digital Changemaker (individual), organized together with I-LINC project – find out more
  
• Best Practice (organisation), organized together with I-LINC project – find out more
• Best Multi-Stakeholder Partnership (organisation) – find out more
  

Public Voting for Unite-IT Community Members

Public voting took place on the Unite-IT website for its members during September 6-14 with ‘likes’ of entries. Voters needed to be registered members of Unite-IT and had to be logged in to be able to vote, i.e. to ‘like’ the entry. People could vote for ONE entry in each category. If they voted for more than one, their votes were disqualified.

Follow the links above to see the full description, assessment criteria, eligible entries and finalists.

Win a trip to Ghent!

The three finalists in each category were invited to attend the Telecentre Europe Annual Conference organised in Ghent, Belgium, on 6-8th October 2016.

All finalists are entitled to FREE accommodation (1 person for 2 nights). Award winners (one in each category) also have their travel expenses covered by Telecentre Europe.

Awards

The Awards ceremony was held in Ghent, Belgium on the evening of the 7th October 2016 in the beautiful Ghent City Hall.

All finalists received certificates; winners were awarded with trophies and gadget prizes and had an opportunity to present their initiatives to an audience of 120 participants.

Finalists and Winners

Learn about the Awards Ceremony and find out the finalists and winners of 2016 here.

Eligibility criteria

Entries were accepted from organisations and individuals who work in wider Europe (not limited to EU28) in the field of digital inclusion and employability.

Terms and conditions

Nominations must be completed in English and submitted through online forms, indicated in each category description.

Deadline for applications: 31^st August 2016

The winners in the two individual categories (Best E-Facilitator and Best Digital Changemaker) were selected directly by the public online voting.

For the two organizational categories (Best Multi-Stakeholder Partnership and Best Practice), a jury assessed the nominations against a set of criteria and chose the best five. These selected five then entered the online voting.

Timeline

• Call for awards: 28.06.2016
• Submission deadline: 31.08.2016
• Evaluation: 01.09-05.09.2016
• Public voting: 06.08-14.09.2016
• Announcement of winners: 16.09.2016

Social media: #TelecentreAwards16

Background

For two years Digital Inclusion awards were given out to organisations and individuals working in the field of digital inclusion to acknowledge their work. Good practices were collected on the Unite-IT e-inclusion network portal which is the focal point of information, news, resources, database of practices and policies in Europe with specific focus on ICT for inclusion and social cohesion.

In 2015, four organisations were selected and awarded in Belgrade:

1. Education and training: “Tieto Latvia” LTD, Latvia
2. Youth employability: YouRock Online Ltd, United Kingdom
3. Vulnerable groups at risk of exclusion: Citizens Advice, United Kingdom
4. Gender equality: City of Venice, Italy

More about the award ceremony and the winning projects available on Unite-IT platform.

2014 winners in Zagreb were:

1. Education and training: Regional Telecottages Public Association of South Hungarian Plain for their project Telecottage Katedra – Smartphones
2. Youth employability: Social Innovation Environment project from Consorcio Fernando De Los Ríos, Spain
3. Vulnerable groups: Open the Windows, Macedonia for their Project for e- Accessible Education
4. Gender equality: Handmade and IT for women implemented by Pontus Euxinus Library in Navodari in Romania.

Read more about the winners and their work in this blogpost.