The winners of the Visions/Solutions ideas competition have been selected. As part of its online competition, the Sustainability Research Group at Die Junge Akademie accepted entries that engaged with visionary ideas or concrete approaches to a sustainable future. Participants had until 15 May 2020 to submit entries in the categories of Visions or Solutions in a broad range of digital formats – from images and videos to texts and songs to multimedia content. Prizes in the amount of 2,000, 1,500 and 1,000 euros were awarded to the three best entries in each category.

Detailed information on all of the prize winners and their ideas can be found at 2020.diejungeakademie.de/en.

An overview of the prize winners:

Visions category

1st place: My Hero (Aneta Zeleznikova) 2nd place: The Bark Project (Johanna Hehemeyer-Cürten and Charlett Wenig) 3rd place: Mach deine Vision zu deiner Zukunft (Team Creactive)

Solutions category

1st place: Virtual Planet (Sabina Keller) 2nd place: Dungse 3rd place: SunCrafter

Special prizes In response to the flood of outstanding submissions, the jury made the decision to award an additional special prize of 250 euros in each of the categories.

1. Visions category special prize: Corontäne (Maira Kellers et al.)
2. Solutions category special prize: Environmental club at Martin-Luther-Europaschule

Die Junge Akademie is celebrating its 20th anniversary this year and the competition, which received support from the UmweltBank AG for the Solutions category, represents a continuation of its engagement in developing innovative formats for transferring knowledge.

Aneta Zeleznikova shared her delight in taking first place in the Visions category for her short story entitled “My Hero”, stating, “The competition gave me the chance to seek a balance between art and science, and to give my ideas room to play in a truly open, creative space. It proves that visions are just as important as practical solutions.”

Sabina Keller, who took first place in the Solutions category, developed a three-day, alternative long-distance journey. “I have been sitting on the Virtual Planet idea for a while now. The competition provided the impetus I needed to finally sit down and put it on paper. I hope that coming in first place will lend the idea the energy it needs to make virtual, sustainable and fair travel possible in the future.”

Participants had until 15 May 2020 to make their digital submissions via an online form. Anyone who was interested in submitting an idea either in German or in English was eligible to take part. Young people in particular were invited to compete. Group submissions were possible. Two juries comprising active and former members of Die Junge Akademie – plus a representative of UmweltBankin the Solutions category – selected the winning ideas. All submissions needed to offer a clear contribution to the topic of climate change, or have some relation to the natural world or sustainability. They also had to be assigned to either the Visions or the Solutions category. One of the most important criteria in both categories was originality

Die Junge Akademie’s goal is to honour visionary ideas for a more sustainable future and to work towards stronger public recognition of the boldness of implementing creative ideas in all areas of society.

The competition was just one of the activities celebrating the 20th anniversary of Die Junge Akademie in 2020. All information on the celebrations planned for this year can be found at 2020.diejungeakademie.de/en/ and under the hashtag #jungeakademie2020.