Climate Change Communication Award “Rebecca Ballestra”

Climate change is one of the most prominent challenges of our times.
More and more initiatives worldwide are devoted to spreading awareness on climate change and engaging the public to bring the change we need.

Through the CMCC Climate Change Communication Award “Rebecca Ballestra”, the CMCC Foundation is awarding the best communication initiatives that spread awareness on climate change through education, advocacy, media production and social engagement activities.

Climate change is considered to be one of the most prominent challenges of our times. A pervasive topic that actively involves countless actors around the world, conditioning every sector of society.

The scientific community is providing increasingly detailed and shared knowledge on the causes of climate change, the options to limit its impacts, and the solutions to build climate-resilient communities. Decision makers, both from the public and the private spheres, are strongly engaged as climate change is a cross-cutting challenge that can no longer be ignored. Civil society is putting pressure on leaders to transform knowledge into action. The media are discussing which languages and solutions are best suited to describe the complexity of climate change, which has finally broken into the foreground of the news cycle.

In this context, the CMCC Climate Change Communication Award “Rebecca Ballestra” focuses on innovative projects and initiatives that deliver engaging messages and communicate climate change in education, advocacy, media production and social engagement activities.

The Award aims to showcase and promote the most creative and impactful initiatives that:

• increase public awareness on climate change and its interactions with society, the economy, the environment, and policy-making processes;
• disseminate science-based information and data related to climate change through the application of innovative ideas, technologies and methodologies in the field of media, journalism, and communication at large;
• communicate the threats and opportunities posed by the climate change challenge using multiple languages and innovative mediums, including journalism, art, videos and music;
• trigger action in the audiences addressed, including students, consumers, businesses and politicians.

The Award honours the memory of the artist Rebecca Ballestra, who was committed to shaping a sustainable future and promoting positive transformation processes in the fields of science, humanities, economy, ecology and art and collaborated with the CMCC Foundation in various cultural initiatives.

ELIGIBILITY

The Award is open to individuals, teams or organizations, regardless of nationality.

Eligible submissions must present projects, initiatives and tools that communicate climate change in education, advocacy, media production and social engagement activities. All the projects, initiatives and tools must already be available to the public.

The applicant can be the author of the project/initiative or the contact person for the author team. The author is the physical person, association or organization that invented, created or designed the submitted project.

Where an intellectual property owner’s authorization is needed, it is the responsibility of the applicants to obtain such approval before submitting the final materials.

Eligible submissions must be in English and compliant with the application procedure described in this Call for Proposals.

Eligible submissions must be sent by 30 June 2021 (12:00 PM CEST). Submissions received after the deadline will not be considered.

APPLICATION PROCEDURE

In order to submit an entry, applicants must fill in the online application form by following the instructions given. Each applicant can submit one or more entries.

TIMELINE

Starting date for submissions: 1 April 2021 (12:00 PM CEST)

Submission deadline: 30 June 2021 (12:00 PM CEST)

Winner announcement: Autumn 2021

Any change in the above dates will be communicated to applicants in due course and disclosed on this website.

EVALUATION PROCESS

Submitted projects will be evaluated by a jury composed of highly qualified members representing the multidisciplinary nature of climate change communication. A pre-selection of the proposals may take place to minimise the burden on the jury.

The international jury performs its assessment according to the following criteria:

– innovation;

– expected/observed impact and engagement;

– ability to reach new and broad audiences (beyond the climate science community);

– reliability of information and data.

The jury’s judgement is final.

PRIZE

The finalists and the winner of the CMCC Climate Change Communication Award “Rebecca Ballestra” – together with any special mentions that the jury may decide to make – will be announced during a high-level event that will be held in autumn 2021. The author(s) of the winning project will have the opportunity to present their project and their work at the event and will receive a cash prize of 5,000 Euro.

More: https://www.cmccaward.eu