RSA partners with Innovation in Politics Institute to launch Innovation in Politics Awards 2021

The Innovation in Politics Awards is an annual competition that recognises new and fresh political projects across Europe. For a second year, the RSA is partnering with the Innovation in Politics Institute to spotlight exciting projects that are leading change in the political sphere.

The Awards have been running since 2017 and have honoured almost 600 people and projects at the heart of innovation in their respective countries.

Criteria and process

The Innovation in Politics Awards represents ground-breaking political advances and approaches that range across a plethora of categories. These are: Community, Democracy, Digitalisation, Ecology, Economy, Education, Human Rights, Quality of Life and Covid-19 Strategies.

A citizen’s jury, made up of 1,000 people from across Europe, is responsible for evaluating all nominated projects based on three key categories: Participation, Building Trust, and Sustainability. For projects to be eligible, they must be projects that have received public funding and have a politician involved in the project.

The top 10 projects from each category progress as finalists to an awards ceremony later in the year, with the highest-scoring project in each category being named the winner. 

If you run an innovative project that meets the criteria, or would like to celebrate one you know of, please nominate them via this online form.

Previous winners

Last year, the London-based initiative ProxyAddress was named winner in the Human Rights category. ProxyAddress is a highly effective and innovative project combating the issue of homelessness. A key and often-overlooked challenge facing those experiencing homelessness is that they are unable to access vital services without a fixed address. ProxyAddress offers a duplicate address that people can use to access the critical support and services necessary to get back on their feet. RSA Fellow and ProxyAddress founder Chris Hildrey wrote about his experience with the project, including receiving Catalyst funding from the RSA, in a blog earlier this year.

In 2017, one of the standout projects awarded was the R-Urban initiative, a winner from the Ecology category. Based in France, the project worked to establish local hubs for supporting citizens with their eco-friendly projects around the living, production, and consumption of local resources. R-Urban demonstrated effective facilitation between citizens and local organisations, as well as innovation in promoting practice policies to support ecology in France.

This year, we hope to celebrate a variety of compelling and captivating projects that truly revolutionise and create impact in politics – particularly given the ever changing and challenging environment in which politicians and governments are working.

If you run an innovative project that meets the criteria above, or simply would like to celebrate one you know of, you can nominate them via this online form.