UNITED ARAB EMIRATES: The Global Best M-Gov Award 2025

The Emirates Government Service Excellence Program (EGSEP) is inviting leaders from government, academia and the private sector to engage in discussions that inspire and enable the next generation of Governments.

“The Global Best M-Gov Award 2025” celebrates creativity and civic engagement of students worldwide enrolled and registered in public and private universities. The Award’s mission is to highlight the pioneering role of universities and creative and innovative youth in addressing local and global challenges and building a better world. The Award recognizes ideas, prototypes, semi- or fully developed mobile applications that adopt novel approaches and techniques efficiently leveraging technology to solve universal problems and provide tangible benefits — with the ability to expand geographically across borders.

Deadlines

The submission closes on the 15th of January 2025 at 20:00 GMT.

The winners will be announced and recognized on the main stage of the World Governments Summit in Dubai from 11 to 13 February 2025.

What the competition offers

Three winners will be honored in the current edition of the Award, with

• the top winner prize set to $50,000 (Fifty Thousand Dollars);
• the second prize to $25,000 (Twenty-Five Thousand Dollars) and
• the third to $10,000 (Ten Thousand Dollars).

Terms for Participation – Eligibility

• Only students enrolled in public and private universities, accredited and recognized by the relevant national authorities, can apply;
• Students cannot participate individually; they must apply for the award as a team that consists of a minimum of two and maximum six individuals;
• Every team can participate with more than one application for different projects. Every University can participate with more than one team;
• Teams should submit a presentation deck of their project explaining the functions of the existing/eventual app, its rationale, the problem it solves, and well-explained and demonstrated scalability;
• Teams should submit a full User Experience model and/or User Interface mockup;
• The submitted projects must be developed by the students themselves and based on their academic work and studies.

Evaluation Criteria

• Originality of the Concept: Measuring the novelty of the concept, the creative use of technology and the suggested approach to solve a real-world problem via a mobile application;
• Usability: Quality of the User Experience and/or User Interface Design;
• Impact: describing the ability for the solution to solve sticky problems affecting a large part of the population, providing tangible benefits;
• Scalability and replicability: assessing the possible extension and adoption of the solution to broader audiences/geographies and/or other contexts;
• Sustainability: considering both the cost-effectiveness and financial viability of the solution, as well as its ecological impact and footprint.

Application process

Apply for the Global Best M-Gov Award 2025 using the following link: Global Best M-Gov Award 2025.

Note

Please note that this opportunity is not offered by the Department of Higher Education and Training. Applicants are required to undertake their own research into programmes and institutions and are responsible for ensuring that the qualifications will be recognised in South Africa by contacting the South African Qualifications Authority and the relevant professional bodies. If there are any discrepancies in the details provided, the information given by the sponsor supersedes the details provided above. No additional financial support will be provided by the Department of Higher Education and Training.