Nokia 2022 Bell Labs Prize

The Nokia Bell Labs Prize is a competition for innovators from participating countries around the globe. It seeks to recognize innovations that solve the key challenges facing humanity and provides selected innovators the unique opportunity to collaborate with Nokia Bell Labs researchers to help realize their vision.

Every year we award the Bell Labs Prize to an innovator that we believe will lay the foundations of the next technology revolution and in the process, manifestly change the way we live, work and communicate. If you have an inventive new idea and proof of concept and are interested in developing it further with leading Nokia Bell Labs researchers, you’ve come to the right place.

• Table of Content
• About Nokia Foundation
• Bell Labs Prize
• Aim and Benefits of Bell Labs Prize
• Requirements for Bell Labs Prize Qualification
• Application Deadline
• How to Apply

About Nokia Foundation

Established as an initiative of Nokia Oyj in August 1995, the Nokia Foundation promotes and supports scientific development and education throughout Finland’s information and telecommunications technology sectors. Multidisciplinary research in these areas, in addition to approaches from other scientific fields, such as social, behavioral, business and service sciences, are also highly valued. To help achieve its mission, the Foundation offers annual grants and awards to most qualified applicants. Decisions are made by the Foundation’s Board Members, which include representatives... continue reading

Bell Labs Prize

Aim and Benefits of Bell Labs Prize

Nokia Bell Labs awards a first prize of $100K, a second prize of $50K and a third prize of $25K, all paid directly to prize winners.

All three winners are also considered for the unique opportunity to work within the world-renowned Nokia Bell Labs to further explore their ideas, following the end of the competition.

Requirements for Bell Labs Prize Qualification

This prize is open to all eligible applicants who register and submit proposals in the general areas of information and communication technologies.  Participants must meet the following criteria:

• Own their ideas
• Be 21 years of age or older
• Possess a bachelor’s, master’s or doctoral degree
• Reside in one of these listed countries:
  United States, Australia, Austria, Belgium, Canada (except Quebec), China, Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Hungary, India, Ireland, Israel, Italy, Japan, Luxembourg, Netherlands, New Zealand, Poland, Portugal, Romania, Singapore, South Africa, South Korea, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, Taiwan, Turkey, United Kingdom
• Employees, partners, and consultants of Sponsor and its affiliates and their immediate family members are not eligible to participate in the Contest.  
• Interns employed by Sponsor or its affiliates are eligible to participate in the Contest.  For the purpose of this Contest, an “intern” means a student currently pursuing a degree at an accredited college or university, hired to work for Sponsor or its affiliates on a temporary basis.  

Teams of up to four are allowed to participate, provided each member of the team meets the full eligibility requirements. The entire team must be included in the submission and accept the Terms and Conditions. 

Application Deadline

How to Apply

The competition is open to anyone in the participating countries who meets the eligibility requirements. Register and submit your idea in 250 words or less (Applicants are also strongly encouraged to attach additional documentation detailing their proposals such as papers or publications). The deadline to enter the contest is April 22, 2022. From the hundreds of applications we receive, 5-7 finalists are selected to compete for three prizes at an event (all expenses paid) in November each year in front of a panel of renowned experts and industry leaders.  The innovation will be judged in three distinct dimensions.

• Innovation Potential - How is your proposal novel? What is the disruptive thinking that could result in a rethinking of the current limits of technology?
• Technical Merit - How technically sound is your proposal? On what current principles and capabilities does it depend? Would it require future advancements and innovations to succeed? 
• Feasibility - Has a proof of concept, simulation or demonstration already been built, or could it be built in the course of the competition?

Fpr more details, visit Nokia website.