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Digital solutions to represent Lithuania at the World Summit Awards this year announced

August 5, 2020

Yesterday, on August 4, the final of the competition “New Enlightener 2020“ – Lithuania’s national selection to the “World Summit Awards” (WSA) took place. The finalists of the competition selected by the Commission presented 23 digital solutions, from which 8 winners were selected – this year’s representatives of Lithuania in 8 categories of the global competition:

  • Real-time cardiogram (ZIVE), intelligent electrocardiogram device and cardiac monitoring system for long-term self-monitoring of cardiac activity (category “Health and Well-Being”);
  • LB Chain (Bank of Lithuania), a blockchain technology-based technology platform (Blockchain), which provides Fintech companies with regulatory and technology advice and access to a pilot environment (category “Government and Citizen Involvement”);
  • Educraft: learning general subjects in the computer game Minecraft (Educraft), an original collective learning content platform in the computer game Minecraft for school students in grades 2-8 (category “Learning and Education”);
  • Hyperspectral data analysis technology for sustainable agriculture (ART21 UAB), a program for more accurate, efficient and sustainable crop management planning (category “Environment and Green Energy”);
  • Interactive educational game “Flight across the Atlantic” (Vytautas the Great War Museum / Kaunas University of Technology), introducing the legendary flight of Steponas Darius and Stasys Girėnas in 1933 in an interactive and modern form ( category “Culture and Tourism”);
  • OPEN INNOVATION – OPEN ALGORITHM – OPEN DATA (Innovation and Technology Group, Vilnius City Municipality), a portal combining all open data of Vilnius city and information on city projects implemented on the basis of open data (category “Smart settlements and urbanization”);
  • Sign on Tab (Sign on Tab), a document digitization and archiving solution for digitally signing a document on a tablet screen (category “Business and Commerce”);
  • Act on Crisis (Act on Crisis),  an app – “emotional sports club” on the phone – to help companies take care of the emotional well-being of their employees (category “Involvement and Empowerment”).
  • The Personal income Tax Declaration Wizard (State Tax Inspectorate / NRD Systems / NFQ Technologies) has won the title of the best solution for Lithuania – a solution that has been helping residents to declare their income very simply and intelligently since this year, saving time and avoiding mistakes. This decision has also become a public favourite, receiving the biggest support on the competition website.

The name of the Starter of the Year, a cash prize of EUR 3,000, as well as additional prizes relevant to start-ups were won by start-up Teachers Lead Tech, a personalized learning platform for primary school teachers to help develop technological creativity skills in the classroom.

BreachDirectory, one of the largest and fastest hacking search engines in the world, was also awarded – its creator, Vilnius University student Lukas Vileikis, will represent Lithuania in the special WSA call “Youth Innovation for Europe”.

“Every year we see how the maturity and quality of digital innovations submitted to our competition grow. The solutions presented in the finals are very diverse, coming from different environments – from start-ups to experienced IT companies, from authorities to museums, but all their creators are united by the desire to solve specific problems, change established, inefficient processes and do it creatively and intelligently”, says Ieva Žilionienė , WSA Lithuanian National Expert and WSA World Jury Member. – The contest “New Enlightener” is a great opportunity to see what new and interesting we have created in Lithuania over the last couple of years, and to evaluate the wide range of digital potential of our country. We believe in our digital innovators and their ability to show the world how smart, advanced and creative people we are, and we believe in Lithuania’s success in the global World Summit Awards this year as well.

Continuing the long-standing tradition, during the final event, the “New Enlightener” was also awarded – a man who has merited to Lithuania’s digital progress and growth with his works and achievements. This year, this honourable award was presented to Dr. Vladas Lašas, businessman, public figure, member of the State Progress Council and the Global Lithuanian Leaders’ Council, Chairman of the Board of the Lithuanian Association of Business Angels and laureate of the International Business Peace Prize.

The goal of the “World Summit Awards” under the auspices of the United Nations is to discover and publicize meaningful innovations around the world that creatively and intelligently address specific societal or community challenges, communicate these local success stories and best practices to a global audience, and enable the transfer of experience and knowledge across the world. The Lithuanian national selection to the WSA is organized by the Information Society Development Committee and the Communications Regulatory Authority of the Republic of Lithuania, friends of the competition: Verslo žinios and 15min, Bitė Lietuva, Tele2, Telia Lietuva, StartUp Wise Guys, Change Makers On, Startup Lithuania.

About the WSA selection process. Decisions have to go through several stages.• National selection phase. During it, each country chooses its best – there can be a maximum of 8 national winners, one in each of the 8 competition categories. The Lithuanian national selection is the contest “New Enlightener”. It follows the same rules and selection criteria as the WSA. The national expert of the country nominates the winners of the local contest for the global competition.• WSA Internet Jury Phase. During it, experts from different countries of the world evaluate and select 15-20 finalists in each of the 8 competition categories.WSA Grand Jury Stage. The 16 members of the WSA Grand Jury, recognized experts representing all regions of the world, carefully evaluate all finalists and select 40 winners – 5 decisions in 8 competition categories, which are invited to a global event – the three-day WSA Global Congress. 2020 the winners of the competition will be invited to a World Congress to be held in Vienna, Austria, in March 2020.

Updated on 2020-08-10