This event is organised within the framework of the EBN 25th Anniversary

Development Programme (UNDP) through Innovations for Development and South-South cooperation (IDEASS), have established a cooperation framework aimed at developing innovations and their dissemination, by launching, among other activities, the realization of an international contest open to more than 200 BICs gathered into the EBN.

The contest’s objective is to identify innovative products, methodologies, solutions and experiences which can be adapted and implemented in other contexts, particularly in less industrialized countries, to solve problems in various sectors. 

The theme for the EBN–UNDP/IDEASS International Contest for Innovation 2009 is: 
Eco-Innovation

Applicants are invited to send their expression of interest for innovations related to the following sectors:

• Governance, supporting the functioning of local institutions, forging dialogue and territorial planning, managing systems and public services, encouraging citizen’s active participation management schemes on the themes of renewable energy planning and implementation and/or environmental protection and management.
• Local economic development, services for local enterprises, technologies and innovative products and entrepreneurial ideas, new management systems for public services and funds related to renewable energies and environmental protection and management.
• Developing a sustainable environmental patrimony by adequately managing the historical and artistic heritage, giving value to environmental and energy resources, reducing vulnerability, managing emergencies, identifying appropriate technology and methodologies, supporting environmentally sound business practices.
  
  The team behind the winning innovation will be awarded with a fully paid overseas assignment to one of the territories where IDEASS is working and where Local Economic Development Agencies (LEDAs) are located (Central America and the Caribbean, Eastern Europe, Africa and Asia at present). The exact territory will be selected based on the potential within the area and the interest local actors in exploiting the winning innovation in their regional territory.
   

Download here the guidelines and the application form.