SLIC provides ICT opportunity for young Sri Lankans

The Sri Lanka Inventors Commission (SLIC) invites all young ICT visionaries between 18-25 to take part in an international competition organised by International Telecommunication Union, the UN agency for Information Technology.

The 'Young Innovators Competition' held by the ITU is open to anyone with an innovative IT based, development solution, and 12 finalists will receive a fellowship to facilitate their participation at ITU Telecom World 2012 covering travel, accommodation, and expenses.

The competition is organised in two categories namely; Concepts and Projects. The Concept category is for well-researched and documented ideas that have not yet been implemented, while the Projects category is open to ongoing operations showing preliminary results e.g Prototypes and in need of support to scale their impact.

SLIC's Commissioner, Deepal Sooriyaarachchi said, "Our mission is to promote invention and ingenuity in Sri Lanka, and we believe that the ITU's competition is a great opportunity to showcase Sri Lankan talent. The commission is confident that Sri Lankans will shine at ITU Telecom World 2012.

Submissions are required to be relevant to at least one of the following issues: Economic Development, Education, Human Rights, Health Care, Environmental Sustainability, Transparency, and Cyber Security.

The winners in the Concept category will receive 3,000-5,000 Swiss Francs and the Project Category winners will receive between 5,000-10,000. In addition to the prize money a one-year mentorship program is also on offer.

All applications can be made online and the closing date for submissions is July 1.