The Danny Faure Ocean Innovation Award nears January 15 deadline |09 January 2024
The first-ever ‘The Danny Faure Ocean Innovation Award’ initiated by the Danny Faure Foundation is nearing its January 15 deadline and willing participants are being encouraged to submit their seven-minute video as soon as possible.
Launched in June last year, The Danny Faure Ocean Innovation Award aims to inspire and empower ocean stewards to develop innovative solutions to ocean challenges facing Seychelles, as a small island developing state.
Speaking to Seychelles NATION, Lorraine Faure, executive director of the Danny Faure Foundation, said willing candidates have few days to submit their work, showcasing their contributions towards the protection and conservation of the ocean, marine science and a sustainable blue economy. Since the launch last year, there has been a lot of publicity on their social media page including Instagram, with posters also being sent to various institutions in the country.
“We have received an entry but from all our past competitions, we have noticed that participants send their entries closer to or on the deadline, so we look forward to receiving submissions soon. The deadline for competition entries still stands,” said Ms Faure.
She said the video submission format is being used for the first time and described it as “a different and interesting approach that we have implemented specifically for this award which may offer the participant freedom to express and showcase their idea/ project using different angles that is through imagery etc. We do very much look forward to submissions coming in.”
The award’s winner will benefit from a five-day learning visit at Nekton, the UK-registered not-for-profit research foundation, to advance their idea or project. According to Ms Faure, Nekton’s personnel will provide support to the winner and where possible bring in its own partners with specialist skills.
Depending on the nature of the idea/project, Nekton could provide support in a number of areas, including strategic development, practical and professional development where the person will get hands-on experience to advance specific skills required to support project advancement, or presentation where the person will be coached and guided on creating assets for presentations to advance the project to the next stage of development.
The project is open to Seychellois citizens who are 18 years old and above and details of the competition can be viewed at www.dannyfaurefoundation.org. The deadline for submission is January 15, 2024 and the results will be announced on March 15, 2024 along with the essay-writing competition which closed on December 15, 2023.
“A detailed evaluation of the competition will influence the foundation’s decision on whether to hold a similar event this year or in the near future. Stay tuned,” said Ms Faure.
Meanwhile, the Danny Faure Foundation said it will be launching other competitions this year that will be targeting a younger age group. The foundation is inviting the public to follow them on Facebook/ Instagram pages or website for update on the upcoming competitions.
Compiled by Alana Esther
Photo: Contributed