Finalists Chosen for INDEX: Award 2017 Design Prize

Among the 1,401 nominations, 56 have been selected as finalists for what the contest organizers call the world’s biggest design prize: INDEX: Award 2017. The 56 designs seek to improve the lives of people all over the world while tackling huge global challenges such as food security, climate change, disease and pollution.

At an international ceremony on September 1 in Copenhagen, five winners will be selected from the pool of finalists. Each winner will receive 100,000 EUR (about $112,000) for further development of their solution.

“To assess 1,401 excellent designs, which in every way make the world a better place, is not easy,” said jury chairman Philip Battin, senior design strategist of Hardware Products at Google. “Nevertheless, I am confident, along with the other jury members, that we have found the right finalists. It is certainly a very exciting and diverse group from all over the world now fighting for the top prizes.”

INDEX: Award is awarded in five categories including Body, Home, Work, Play & Learning, and Community.

• Among the Body category, finalists are a new textile that can be cleaned with sunlight, and a small matchstick-sized implant, Stentrode, that can help paralyzed people regain mobility.
• In the Home category, there are eco plastics made of cassava plants and ReGen Villages: a self-sufficient sustainable residential neighborhood.
• In the Work category, the jury selected 12 solutions including an artificial leaf that can help with medicine production, and a sustainable farming solution, which can simultaneously produce food and clean the ocean.
• In the Play & Learning category, there is a device that captures CO2 emissions and turns them into printable ink, as well as a low-cost ‘lab-in-a-box’ to teach both children and adults about genetics.
• In the Community category, the jury chose the world’s first electric truck, and a project aiming to transfer huge amounts of solar energy across the globe using satellites.

In the group of finalists there are also new methods to improve access to medical supplies; drones for good; AI and big data systems to predict epidemics; new digital platforms to revolutionize the internet; 3D printed flexible bones, and apps to bring transparency to global supply chains.

“The finalists show, first and foremost, how much good news there is in the world,” said Kigge Hvid, CEO of INDEX: Design to Improve Life. “They also demonstrate just how crucial design is for addressing the major problems of our world. I’m so happy with the diverse range of finalists this year.”

Once selected by the jury, the five winners of INDEX: Award 2017 will be celebrated at a gala event attended by Her Royal Highness Crown Princess Mary and 1,000 guests.

For more information, visit INDEX: Design to Improve Life.

Source: Press release provided by the organization.