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Idea Contest
+++ 25 ideas honoured +++
Welcome to the Civic Innovation Platform!
AI is what we make it! What do we mean by that? Good ideas, different fields of expertise, a variety of experience, and, in particular, the shared desire to advance our society – all of these things need to come together in order to make artificial intelligence (AI) beneficial for everyone.
This platform is open to anyone who is interested in applying AI for the benefit of societal and social progress:
- everybody who knows how AI works, how it can be used and how it is programmed;
- everybody who has an idea of how all the knowledge that is waiting in so many databases can improve the lives and work of numerous people;
- everybody who knows the social necessities to which AI could be an answer and
- everybody who wants to use AI providing benefits for the common good - e.g. in the sense of social entrepreneurship – to achieve economic success.
Whether you’re programmers or working in start-ups, companies, associations, organisations, administrative authorities, trade unions, or research institutes, why not turn your idea into a joint project? Register yourselves and start looking for partners who can help you implement your idea. On this platform, you will find like-minded people who seek to collaborate to realise good ideas.
The second round of the idea contest will be starting in spring!
Turn your idea into a joint project; register and take part together in our idea contest. By combining technological, creative, and social intelligence, we can make AI our own.
The deadline for submission to the first round of the idea contest has passed and we have received many promising submissions. The best ones will be announced in March. But: after the idea contest is before the idea contest and the community building continues! Register yourselves, upload your ideas, get together in project teams, and submit your project drafts in the next round. You can find out here what the next steps in the idea contest are.
News and dates
Ideas for AI providing benefits for the common good: first Civic Innovation Platform award ceremony
Read more: Ideas for AI providing benefits for the common good: first Civic Innovation Platform award ceremonyOn 10 March 2021, Federal Minister Hubertus Heil honoured the 25 most impressive ideas at the virtual award ceremony for the first round of the ‘AI is what we make it’ idea contest. The innovativeness and diversity of the ideas made an impression in particular, as did the teams’ aspiration of considering society’s needs at all times.
First idea contest: 25 project ideas honoured!
Read more: First idea contest: 25 project ideas honoured!The Civic Innovation Platform panel as represented by the cooperation partners and the Federal Ministry of Labour and Social Affairs (BMAS) discussed and evaluated the entries submitted in the first round of the idea contest. And the decision has now been made – 25 ideas were honoured by Federal Minister Hubertus Heil at the award ceremony on 10 March 2021.
The first pitch of the idea contest
Read more: The first pitch of the idea contestThe Civic Innovation Platform (CIP) is moving closer to its goal of getting AI applications to contribute to societal and social progress with the ‘AI is what we make it’ idea contest. In the virtual pitch on 11 and 12 February, 36 teams had the opportunity to explain how their ideas could improve the lives and work of many people.
Current figures
Submitted project ideas
116
Submitted project ideas
Nominated project ideas
36
Nominated project ideas
Won project ideas
25
Won project ideas
Latest project ideas
Frequently asked questions
We define “civic innovation” as innovation processes where the driving impetus comes from within society – from people, associations, companies, organisations and institutions – and which are aimed at improving the living conditions of the general public. On top of this, we see it as encompassing all innovations that aim to advance progress in society and systematically integrate the relevant social actors and groups. The concept is based on sharing and collaboration between different disciplines, sectors and areas, openly and on an equal footing with the aim of developing solutions that can be put into practice.
Civic innovation brings together various logical approaches: what unfulfilled social needs are there regionally or cross-regionally and what new technological possibilities could help to address these needs? This is where the Civic Innovation Platform steps in: it brings together actors who by pooling their individual areas of competence – such as a precise knowledge of actual needs, ideas, methodological knowledge or technical expertise – are able to jointly develop and implement innovative solutions. At the same time, the project provides access to further assistance such as consulting, competence paring and financial support.
The Civic Innovation Platform (CIP) is targeted at the participation-oriented, socially minded technology design of artificial intelligence and is testing various tools for supporting participatory and collaborative social innovation processes. CIP is a Policy Lab Digital, Work & Society project within the German Federal Ministry of Labour and Social Affairs. It is based on the German Federal Government's artificial intelligence strategy (only in German), in which the Federal Government undertakes among other things to develop and deploy AI “responsibly and for the benefit of the common good” and to embed it “in society on an ethical, legal, cultural and institutional basis within the framework of a broad social dialogue and active policymaking (...)”. In this sense, the project is striving for broad acceptance in society and the design of technology for the benefit of the common good.
The Civic Innovation Platform (CIP) would like to contribute to networking people from different areas (business, science, administration, civil society) with one another and thereby enabling them to develop new solutions for addressing both challenges facing society as well as needs. We want to create optimum underlying conditions that allow good ideas to evolve into innovative projects. Our attention is directed primarily toward the deployment of artificial intelligence (AI) for the benefit of everyone. Alongside the potential for innovation, the focus is also on potential for collaboration in developing ideas and projects jointly for the use of AI technology for the benefit of the common good and in putting it into practice through different types of funding as well as workshops and the provision of advice.
Funding is provided for innovations for the benefit of the common good that use AI technology − such as machine learning or pattern recognition. As the Civic Innovation Platform is a funding programme initiated by the German Federal Ministry of Labour and Social Affairs, the projects need to have a clearly identifiable link to the Ministry’s activities. This includes aspects such as the future and quality of work, occupational safety, co-determination in companies, vocational training and further education, reintegration in the labour market, pensions, integration, inclusion, diversity and equal participation.
Learn more by clicking on the logos.
The Policy Lab of the Federal Ministry of Labour and Social Affairs