This was the final of Pitch Your Project 2021
At the EUSALP Annual Forum 2021, which took place in Nice, France, the young people of the five finalist projects of PITCH YOUR PROJECT 2021 pitched their ideas with short videos and answered questions from the audience on stage. All finalists have innovative ideas to develop the Alpine Region in a sustainable way and to preserve the natural and cultural heritage of the Alps.
The audience, composed of people physically or virtually present, chose the three winners through online voting.
We proudly present the winners:
- Roberta from the Italian mountain town Tolmezzo won first place and € 5,000 with the project SCPIK. SCPIK is a virtual emotional map made up of the memories and stories of local people, creating unique itineraries based on feelings and emotions so that everyone has the opportunity to discover the region through an immersive and authentic experience. The map collects the heritage of those who truly lived the Alpine Region, offering both tourists and locals an exclusive way to discover the land and its landscapes, while simultaneously creating a unique archive of indigenous culture, language and tradition.
- AlpiSECTS, a project developed by two young students from Trentino, made the second place and won € 3,000. The project is based on the idea of rearing insects to produce a sour destined to animal feed or human food, also using waste wood in a certain phase of the breeding process. The goal is to include insects into our daily diet to limit the carbon impact of our protein diets and to use materials that were previously considered waste.
- A group of school pupils from the Austrian region Tyrol is behind the project vollTrash, which made the third place and won € 2,000. Under the motto “Pick up a piece of trash a day and our world will say hooray!”, the goal is to develop an app that motivates people to do something sustainable for the environment. Picking up trash will be made attractive through incentives such as vouchers, sponsored by local companies. To this end, the „trash hunt“ will be recorded with the help of the app and rewarded based on a point system.
The prizes were presented by Sławomir Tokarski, Director, European Territorial Cooperation, Macro-regions, Interreg and Programme Implementation I, in the DG REGIO of the European Commission, and Liliane Lucchesi, Regional Councilor Delegate of the French region Bourgogne-Franche-Comté. The first vice-president of the Tyrolean Parliament Sophia Kircher gave an opening speech in which she encouraged the young people to continue on their path.
The “Pitch Your Project” competition was organized for the fourth time in 2021 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.
Now it is time to implement the projects: We wish the young people every success!
