STARTS Prize Africa for Young Africans 2025

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. 

• Table of Content
• About STARTS4AFRICA
• STARTS Prize Africa
• Aim and Benefits of STARTS Prize Africa
• Requirements for STARTS Prize Africa Qualification
• Interview date, Process and Venue for STARTS Prize Africa
• Application Deadline
• How to Apply

About STARTS4AFRICA

STARTS4AFRICA is co-funded by the European Union, under the STARTS – Science, Technology and Arts initiative of DG CNECT (GA no. LC-01960720). Views and opinions expressed are those of the author(s) only and do not necessarily reflect those of the European Union or DG CNECT. Neither the European Union nor the granting authority can be held responsible for them.

STARTS Prize Africa

Aim and Benefits of STARTS Prize Africa

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

Award Ceremony and Symposium:?The winner of the STARTS Prize Africa Grand Prize makes a commitment to accept the award in person at the Award Ceremony and to present the work at the STARTS Prize Forum. Both will take place during the Ars Electronica Festival on September 3 – 7, 2025 in Linz, Austria.

Exhibition:?If the submitted work is selected and honoured by the Jury, the artist is committed upon invitation to present the submitted work at the Ars Electronica Festival 2025, as well as at the consortium members’ events. 

Requirements for STARTS Prize Africa Qualification

• 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 STARTS Prize Africa is not restricted to a particular genre or field. 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, social software, and many more. 
• The competition is open to citizens and residents of all African countries, as well as legal entities registered on the continent. 
• 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 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.

Interview date, Process and Venue for STARTS Prize Africa

Application Timeline:

• Open Call : January 7, 2025
• Submission Deadline : March 5, 2025, 23:59 CET 
• Jury Meeting : April 10 – 13, 2025
• Announcement of the Winners : June 2025
• Exhibition and Award Ceremony at?the Ars Electronica Festival: September 3 – 7, 2025 

Application Deadline

How to Apply

For more details, visit STARTS website.