Three UK organisations have picked up awards at the 2017 World Summit Awards. Only Chile, out of 180 entering countries, won more awards, proving that the UK leads the world in digital technologies that make a positive impact. MedShr, Micro:bit and Defenders of the Earth (Global Witness), representing the UK in the learning, health and environment categories, all won awards.

Each year the national expert in 180 participating countries selects the best example of digital innovation and excellence in each of eight categories. These are scrutinised by an international online jury to produce a shortlist. The WSA Grand Jury then meets to select the 40 global winners from the shortlist, focusing on digital content and technologies that truly make a positive impact on their sector and people’s lives.

Four nations stood out at WSA 2017 taking home 35% of the 40 awards. These were Chile (with a phenomenal five awards), UK (three awards), Germany (three awards) and Brazil (three awards).

The UK winners at the World Summit Awards:

micro:bit – winner Learning & Education category

micro:bit is a tiny programmable computer, designed to help school children learn to love coding. It comes with a wealth of online teaching materials and more than 200 different activities and resources for kids to try.

The micro:bit Educational Foundation is a not-for-profit company, with the global mission to help improve digital skills and lower barriers to technology invention for young people; and to enable teachers, governments and educational organisations fulfil their digital educational goals.

http://microbit.org

MedShr – winner Health & Well-Being category

MedShr is a private, professional platform for the medical community, medical students and healthcare professionals to share and discuss clinical cases, improve active learning in medical education and optimise patient care.

It has 350,000 users worldwide and has been used by doctors in refugee camps to seek specialist advice, and top consultants in the UK, US and Europe to mentor and train junior doctors from every corner of the globe.

http://www.medshr.it

Defenders of the Earth – winner Environment & Green Energy category

In 2016 more than four people a week were killed for defending their land and environment, making it the deadliest year on record. The Defenders of the Earth is a campaign by international NGO Global Witness draws attention to abuses in the natural resource sector and helps to protect activists globally.

The campaign highlights the killing of environmental and land activists by combining innovative multimedia material with hard-hitting documentation. The Global Witness’ database of killings is also shared with the Guardian newspaper, which tracks the cases in real time on its own dedicated site defenders.

https://www.globalwitness.org/en/campaigns/environmental-act...

UK entries shortlisted for the World Summit Awards:

In addition, two further UK entries were shortlisted by the WSA online jury.

Superhumans – shortlist Inclusion & Empowerment category – Channel 4’s multimedia campaign to promote and accompany its Paralympics coverage. http://paralympics.channel4.com/

Gone West – shortlist Culture & Tourism category – sustainable online travel company that calculates the carbon footprint of all flights and holidays booked through its platform and plants the according number of trees. https://www.gonewest.com/

Details of all 40 World Summit Award winners can be found at:

https://www.worldsummitawards.org/wsa-awards/winners

Media Quotes

Andy Favell, WSA Country Expert for the UK

“With independent experts in 180 countries submitting the very best their nation has to offer in digital health, education, environment, travel, inclusion, business, government and smart cities, the competition at the World Summit Awards is far more intense and international than awards where companies nominate themselves.

To stand out in this environment is a remarkable achievement. It is gratifying both that the WSA Grand Jury recognised the excellence in the Micro:bit, MedShr and Defenders of the Earth entries, and that the UK has again proved itself to be a digital powerhouse, scoring the second-highest number of awards.”

Billy Kyte, Campaign Leader, Global Witness

“We are immensely proud to win the World Summit Awards for our campaign to end the killings of environmental and land activists. We dedicate the prize to all those who have given their lives and who suffer daily attacks for defending the environment.”

Zach Shelby, CEO, Micro:bit Educational Foundation

“The Foundation mission is to empower children, parents and teachers around the globe to learn and innovate using the micro:bit. To be in the global top 40 in digital innovation is a wonderful testament to the inspiring effect of the micro:bit.”

Dr Asif Qasim, Consultant Cardiologist, Founder and CEO of MedShr

“It is a privilege to have been selected as the UK winner in the health and well-being category among such tough competition. We’d like to thank the WSA Grand Jury who worked long evenings evaluating the valuable work of the 400 candidates.”

Media Contact

For more information or to be referred to any of the winners, please contact WSA Country Expert for the UK
Andy Favell via:
https://www.linkedin.com/in/andyfavell
https://twitter.com/andy_favell