My Idea is the Future: Youth Digital Solutions Competition (Turkey)

The competition encourages young people to develop creative solutions to local problems and to develop digital solution proposals that will highlight the role of the Digital Youth Centers established within the project in local capacity development and include innovative management models for the centers.

Aim

• To encourage young women and men to develop creative solutions to local problems.
• To develop digital solution proposals that will highlight the role of Digital Youth Centers in local capacity development and include innovative management models for the centers.
• To develop projects that add value to society and the economy.
• To develop projects that will contribute to gender equality, especially SDG 5 among the Sustainable Development Goals , and have a long-term impact.

Benefits

• Opportunity to develop digital skills.
• Trainings in the fields of technology and entrepreneurship.
• Opportunity to develop your project with professionals through mentoring support.
• The chance to introduce your project at technology fairs.
• Right to participate in the Hackathon for the 19-29 age group.
• Opportunity to develop networking.
• Surprise gifts for 15-18 age group.

Duration

• General Information: February 24 – March 10 – March 24, 2025: Holding a main information meeting where the general process will be shared.
• Regional Information: March 3 – May 16, 2025: Organizing physical and online meetings in cooperation with local municipalities in 45 provinces.
• Mentoring and Idea Development: March 10 – June 13, 2025: Organizing idea development and mentoring sessions in DİGEMs and online platforms.
• Local Jury Evaluation: June 16 – July 7, 2025: Determination of local jury members in each province under the coordination of municipalities and DİGEMs. Evaluation of applications by the local jury.
• National Jury Evaluation and Selection: July 14 – 25, 2025: Evaluation of projects selected locally by the national jury. Preparation of the jury evaluation report and determination of the winners.
• Announcement of Winners: August 1, 2025: Among the participants in the competition, 10 projects will be eligible to be awarded in each category. Successful participants will be notified via e-mail, and the list of winners will be published on the partner institution websites.
• Hackathon (19-29 Age Group): September 1 – 3, 2025: Developing the winning projects and preparing them for implementation processes. Conducting workshops focused on project management, use of digital tools and sustainable solution development.

Eligibility Criteria

• Young people aged 15-18: Those who want to develop innovative and equitable digital solutions for Digital Youth Centres and schools.
• Young people between the ages of 19-29: Those who want to produce applicable digital projects for Digital Youth Centers, municipalities and businesses.
• You can apply individually or in teams of up to 5 people.
• Priority will be given to teams led by women and/or teams with balanced representation of women and men.

For more information, visit UNDP.