New Europe 100 – Second Edition

Young creative thinkers from Central and Eastern Europe who bring change to their communities are sought by the organizers of the New Europe 100 list. Nominations can be submitted until September 15th.

Teams or individuals, those already accomplished or just beginning, people active in the field of politics, business, media, culture or science – the spark of innovation may be found in everyone, but only a few will become pioneers of great change. And such innovators are sought by the organizers of the New Europe 100 list, which is to feature the most outstanding challengers, who have the courage to bring change, act in the name of ideals, and impact the world around them. Candidates may include teams or individuals who employ new technologies in their areas of activity and whose work has a positive impact on the economy, science, culture and local communities.

For the second year in a row, the organizers are looking for challengers in this region of Europe, because in recent years it has become a center of entrepreneurship, a hotbed of start-ups. Creating the list makes it possible to seek out new talents and to spotlight them for the wider public.

“In 2014 the mean age of the distinguished Central and Eastern European challengers was 35, but we want to appreciate younger leaders, too. Last year the youngest person on the NE100 list was a high school student from Poland, who devised a mechanism for delivering medication directly to pancreatic cancer cells,” says Katarzyna Szajewska, coordinator of the project from the Res Publica foundation.

Innovation leaders on the 2014 list included such trailblazers as Przemysław Kuśmierek from Poland, founder of Migram.org, a website offering automatic sign language translation, Štefan Klein from Slovakia, who was honored for his flying car project; Ionuț Budișteanu, the Romanian inventor of a self-driving vehicle; Bertalan Meskó from Hungary, who created a social network that connects patients and doctors, enabling them to discuss difficult medical cases, and Darko Parić, the Croatian Assistant Minister at the Ministry of Administration, recognized for the e-Croatia project.

“The NE100 list shows a modern, innovative side of Central and Eastern Europe 25 years after the economic transformation of the region. The yearly selection of a 100 leading innovators from our part of Europe provides an opportunity to watch the newest trends in the development of the region and promote Central and Eastern European achievements to the world. NE100 creates a network of innovators from the region, who use new technologies in business, public administration, science, media and culture. It is a pleasure to see how, despite many developmental challenges it faces, New Europe can expertly put new technologies to use and, in many aspects, be a role model,” says Agata Wacławik-Wejman, head of Public Policy at Google CEE.

Nominees for the list may be put forward both by private individuals and by institutions, research centers, public administration and companies. The proposals can be submitted using a form at www.ne100.org/nominate or on Facebook or Twitter in a post or tweet with the name of the candidate, a short explanation and the hashtag #NE100. The organizers will later select a hundred challengers from the submitted proposals. The results will be announced this fall.

The New Europe 100 aims to support innovation in Central and Eastern Europe through acknowledging those who are engines of positive change. The project is organized by Res Publica in cooperation with the Visegrad Fund, Google, Financial Times and many other institutions from Central and Eastern Europe (Antall József Knowledge Centre, Aspen Institute Prague, European Digital Forum, ImpactHub Romania, Latvian Transatlantic Organization, Slovak Alliance for Internet Economy, Startup Poland).

For more information about the project please visit: www.ne100.org.

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Contact for press:

Res Publica
Res Publica Foundation
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00-362 Warsaw, Poland
+48 22 692 47 84