S+T+ARTS announces Open Call for the 2025 STARTS Prize Africa

The STARTS Prize Africa welcomes initiatives that strive towards a positive social, humanitarian, economic or political impact and promote a diverse and sustainable society in Africa

Feb 25, 2025

S+T+ARTS, an initiative of the European Commission to foster alliances between science, technology, and the arts, is accepting entries for the STARTS Prize Africa, a prize that honours innovative initiatives at the intersection of art, science, and tech.

“The STARTS Prize Africa welcomes initiatives that strive towards a positive social, humanitarian, economic or political impact and promote a diverse and sustainable society in Africa,” the announcement noted. “The submission is open to all forms of creative practices.”

The prize money, which amounts to € 30.000, will be distributed among the Grand Prize (€ 15.000) and 5 Awards of Distinction (€ 3.000 each).

Eligibility Criteria

Some of the listed criteria include;

The competition is open to citizens and residents of all African countries, as well as legal entities registered on the continent.
The projects should be driven by both technology and the arts. Purely artistic or technologically driven projects are not the focus of this competition.
All forms of artistic works and practices with a link to innovation in technology, business and/or society are welcome. STARTS Prize Africa is not restricted to a particular genre such as media art and digital art. 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, new media applications, machine learning, biotechnology, art & science, material research, smart cities and citizen empowerment, robotics, and many more.
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 authorised representative. This may be an individual or an organization as specified above.
Every submitted project must be, at the time of its submission, either totally completed or far enough along for the jury to be able to assess its quality and the likelihood of it being successfully implemented. The same applies to collaborative arrangements—at the time they’re submitted, they must already be up-and-running and in the implementation stage. No consideration will be given to entries that are purely concepts, ideas or proposals for collaboration.
Projects should not be older than two years or have to show a significant update or further development within the last two years.

Required Submission Material

Applicants will need to provide the following material through the online submission platform:

Audiovisual material: at least one file presenting the project
- video (3-10 minutes in length – .mp4, .mov);
- image (.jpg, .tiff, .bmp, .png at maximum quality);
- audio (.wav, .mp3, .aif, .mov, .ogg)…
Clear, detailed descriptions of the artistic concept, credits and received support, applicant’s affinity to Africa.
Form of technical implementation (since specific prerequisites must be fulfilled for an onsite presentation (e.g. in conjunction with the Ars Electronica Festival), the project’s specifications as to hardware & software and spatial requirements are desirable).
A printable portrait photo, short bio, and contact data of the artist(s) / creator(s).
At the entrant’s option, additional material such as images, documents, and drawings (as .png or .pdf) can also be submitted.

Jury Process

The STARTS Prize Africa Jury consists of internationally distinguished personalities from the fields of business, science, and the arts selected by Ars Electronica.

The Jury will judge all submitted eligible projects and determine the prize-winning projects during the Jury Session from April 10 – 13, 2025. The Jury’s decision is final.