These are the five finalists of “Pitch your project 2020”

Under the motto “Your Alps! Your Future! Your project!” young people from all Alpine regions were invited to submit innovative project ideas for a sustainable development of the Alpine region. Young people from Italy, France, Austria and Slovenia followed the call and submitted a total of 25 creative project ideas for the “Pitch Your Project” competition. An international jury of experts, including representatives of the French EUSALP Presidency, the Permanent Secretariat of the Alpine Convention and young participants from last year, selected the five best projects, which will compete in the online finale on 10 December.

Two projects from Italy, two projects from France and one project from Austria made it into the top 5 of “Pitch Your Project 2020”:

In the age group 20 to 25, three projects were able to convince the jury:

• A team from the French region Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes is behind the project “ADN SKIS“, which aims to produce skis made of natural, recyclable materials. This should reduce the environmental pollution caused by ski waste.
• In the project “100% Alps” two Italian students want to develop a modular vending machine that promotes short, local food supply chains in the Alpine region. Local producers should thus reach a larger target group, while users receive fresh and high-quality regional products.
• A 24-year-old South Tyrolean carpenter is developing an environmentally friendly insole made of natural materials, such as Swiss stone pine, cork and linen from the Alpine region in the “Bergsohle” project. His project focuses on regional raw materials and the cooperation with regional tradesmen and companies.

Two projects from the age group of 16 to 19, also made it into the top 5:

• The French project “Ski Day” aims to develop a web platform to improve the sustainable and affordable accessibility of ski resorts. Skiers should be able to buy tickets for the ski resort as well as tickets for bus and train as a package solution via a website.

• A school class from the Austrian region Tyrol is behind the project “Terra preta in the middle of the Alps“. The students want to show how locally produced biochar reduces CO2 in the atmosphere. To do so, they want to produce biochar themselves and use it to grow their own vegetables and herbs. At the same time, they want to calculate to what extent the CO2 pollution they cause can be offset by the use of biochar.

At the finale of this year’s Annual Forum of the EU Strategy for the Alpine Region (EUSALP) on 10 December, which will be an online event due to the Covid 19 pandemic, the young people will present their projects to an international audience. The audience will choose the winners in an online voting. The three winning projects will receive prize money of 5,000, 3,000 and 2,000 euros to implement their project ideas. In addition, the winners will receive practical support from EUSALP experts in the implementation process. Register on the button bellow, to follow the competition’s finale online.

The “Pitch Your Project” competition is organized for the third time in 2020 by the European Commission and the Tyrol with the support of the French EUSALP presidency to involve young people with their ideas more strongly in the sustainable development of the Alpine region. “Pitch Your Project” is part of the initiative “youth.shaping.EUSALP” to involve youth in the implementation of the EU Strategy for the Alpine Region.