• Tech for Good

Written by Lucy Wakeford, Communications Coordinator, DigitalAgenda

Entries for the DigitalAgenda Impact Awards closed before Christmas, with a record 510 nominations and 339 submissions from a wide range of UK tech for good initiatives. 

The quality and breadth of this year’s entries demonstrates the increasing strength of the social impact technology sector in the UK. 

Entries have come from all over the UK, with more than half of this year’s cohort coming from outside of London. Encouragingly for the UK-wide impact economy, we have seen applications from Manchester, Birmingham, Bristol, Leeds, Newcastle, Belfast, Cambridge and Oxford, as well as smaller towns around the country.

Applications were made across 12 categories, including the new categories aimed at individuals: Impact Investor and Tech for Good Entrepreneur.

The ‘Health’ category received the most applications, implying that UK HealthTech startups are continuing to innovate to be some of the best in the world. The ‘Social Transformation’ category was also well subscribed, showing that UK organisations are also making great progress in using technology to solve societal problems. 

The Impact Awards judging panel is now tasked with the difficult job of shortlisting the entries. Our judges, who come from a wide range of sectors and industries, will assess against five criteria: idea, product, team, scalability and impact. 

Finalists will be announced on the 30th of January, with the opening of the ‘People’s Choice’ vote. The public will then be able to vote for their favourite initiative over all twelve categories, with the highly coveted ‘People’s Choice’ award given out during the reception on awards night. Last year’s winner was the Sharing Economy finalist ‘BorrowMyDoggy’, a platform on which ‘borrowers’ can discover and look after dogs in their neighbourhood.

The winners of the 2020 DigitalAgenda Impact Awards will be announced on the 5th of March at the iconic Oval Space in east London. Awards guests will join senior-level entrepreneurs, investors, academics, journalists and more, along with award finalists, guests and members of the growing UK-wide DigitalAgenda Network for a celebration of the digital innovations that make the world a better place. Unlike other awards events, the Impact Awards offers super-engaging on-stage content and plenty of time for our guests to meet and connect with each other. Tickets are now on sale for the fourth annual awards ceremony, and you can find out more about purchasing one here.

We would like to thank all those who have entered for their support, and we wish them all the best of luck in this first round of shortlisting.

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