The Regional Cooperation Council is inviting creative minds to apply for the 3^rd Regional Butterfly Innovation Award for innovative, scalable, and market-based solutions from the Western Balkans.

The Award aims to support the Western Balkans’ economic development by embracing digital transformation and fostering environmental sustainability.

The purpose of the Butterfly Innovation Award is to promote innovation culture in the Western Balkans through showcasing successful innovative achievements and empowering sensitive groups such as youth and women.

The RCC welcomes applications from innovation teams/individuals from the region for the categories presented below.

Applicants must be citizens or permanent residents from the Western Balkans (Albania, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Kosovo*, Montenegro, North Macedonia, and Serbia).

• Submissions should demonstrate innovative solutions or projects within one of the six award categories, showcasing practicality, impact, and scalability.
• The nominated innovations must demonstrate an active impact in the Western Balkans. Special consideration will be given to projects that address current societal challenges or have the potential for significant positive change,
• Applicants must be individuals or teams where the majority of members are under 35 years old (average age per team must not exceed 35 years),
• Nominations are accepted from individual innovators or innovative teams and the nominating partners from the Western Balkans including public institutions, business associations, research organisations and civil society organisations. Nominating partners are encouraged to nominate only innovative teams or individuals that satisfy all of the selection criteria.

The Butterfly Innovation Award has the following six categories.

• Industry Innovation Award
  aims to recognise innovative solutions that are making waves in the industry and may be of interest to European and global markets. It covers any of the following topics:
  • Automotive industry,
  • Metal-processing,
  • Creative industries,
  • Agrofood,
  • Green & Circular Economy,
  • Tourism, and
  • Fintech, Edtech, Biotech, Healthtech and similar fields.
• Green Innovation Award
  aims to raise awareness of sustainable and environmentally-friendly innovative solutions that support the green transition of the Western Balkans. The award targets the following topics:
  • Climate action aimed at mitigation and adaptation measures,
  • Sustainable energy, mobility & agriculture,
  • Fight against pollution,
  • Nature and biodiversity protection.
• STEM Innovation Award
  aims to recognise individuals, informal groups or organisations for outstanding achievements in STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics) fields. Its purpose is to shine a light on enthusiastic teams in secondary and higher education that have significantly contributed to promoting the importance of STEM for the Western Balkans’ industry (e.g. innovative STEM education or training programmes designed to encourage high school students – preferably girls or young women – to enroll in higher education STEM courses or enter STEM careers).
• Youth Innovation Award
  aims to recognise undergraduate university students or high school students’ innovative achievements in any of the above topics.
• University Innovation Award
  aims to promote entrepreneurial culture at universities for innovative solutions created by university staff or students in any of the above topics.
• Women Innovation Award
  aims to identify, promote and empower women with innovative solutions that will inspire future women innovators and entrepreneurs in the Western Balkans. (Note: If an applicant is a company, a woman or a group of women should have at least 51% of ownership or hold managing position(s) in the company.)

The best innovative solutions should be able to demonstrate how they have solved or aim to solve problems on the market. For example, through the increase of productivity or profitability, the introduction of new or improved technologies that contribute to high-skill job creation, etc.

Specific criteria include:

• Practicality (50%) – Ability of an innovative solution (technology, product, or process) to practically solve clients’ problems,
• Impact (30%) – Clear evidence that the implementation of innovation could impact the development of an industry or economy in the Western Balkans and beyond,
• Scalability (20%) – Ability of an innovative product to achieve repeatable and sustainable organic growth.

• The financial reward of up to €5.000 depending on the category,
• A possibility to promote its product through the Regional Cooperation Council’s network of contacts,
• Press and media attention to promote winners as leading innovation role models.

The deadline for applications is 10 October 2024.

The Butterfly Innovation Honourees will be announced in November 2024.

Applications must include the age information of all participating individuals.

To evaluate an entry, the Selection Committee may ask for additional information.

If improperly categorised, an entry may be moved to a different category based on the recommendation of the Selection Committee, without the applicant’s consent.

Incomplete and hard copy applications will be automatically disqualified.

RCC is not responsible for the follow-up of incomplete and hard copy entries.

RCC reserves the exclusive right to set, modify, and interpret all conditions regarding this competition without claim for damage or recourse of any kind.

Each innovation team/individual selected as an awardee grants RCC permission, without compensation, to use its name and photograph/likeness and/or entry in promoting this or similar award programmes in the future.

All entry forms are property of the RCC. Applicants can make or print a copy of their application after they submit/finish their application form.

RCC reserves the right to annul any awards granted to honourees that have misrepresented in any way their product or entry in this competition.

RCC Secretariat shall use the applicant’s data in line with the Law on Data Protection of Bosnia and Hercegovina and internal rules and regulations. All information is considered confidential and shall be used only for the purposes of this activity.

• Butterfly Innovation Award 2023
• Butterfly Innovation Award 2022