Founded in 2013 by Delphine Remy-Boutang, the Digital Women’s Day (DWD) is a growth accelerator that mobilizes public, private and media actors in Europe and Africa to honor women who innovate and undertake. It is in this context that it has just launched a call to all women and girls in Europe or Africa who bet on innovative technologies to apply for the Les Margaret 2022 prize.

The Margaret and Junior Margaret Awards honour Margaret Heafield Hamilton, computer scientist, systems engineer and entrepreneur. Director of the Software Engineering Department at the MIT Instrumentation Laboratory, she is also the designer of the onboard system for NASA’s Apollo space program, which enabled man to walk on the moon for the first time. The accelerator awards are part of JDF’s efforts to reduce gender inequality and to reveal and support a new generation of leaders ready to shape the future.

The Margaret Award

The Margaret Award is open to female founders or co-founders of tech startups for the Entrepreneur category, and to female employees who have developed an innovative project in agreement with their employer while remaining employed, for the Intrapreneur category. They must be citizens of a European or African country and have a digital project that responds to one or more societal challenges: Environment & Energy (climate change, urban planning, energy transition, sustainable development…), Health (access to care, diagnostics, treatments…), NTIC (cybersecurity, IoT, data science, all digital…), Transport & Mobility (vehicles, infrastructure, uses…).

The winners will benefit from media exposure valued at 1 million euros for 1 year, speaking opportunities at major international events, digital equipment and will participate in coaching/mentoring sessions with JFD partners.

The Junior Margaret Award

The Junior Margaret Award is aimed at young European and African girls aged 7 to 18 who have an innovative project. The objective is to demystify the technological and digital professions and to bring out a new generation of leaders. This prize is held under the patronage of Jean-Michel Blanquer, Minister of National Education, Youth and Sports. It is aimed at young women entrepreneurs, those who have a start-up project, a concept that responds to a challenge (health, environment, education…) through the application of a technology or those who have developed a prototype (robot, game, app…) using one or more technologies (artificial intelligence, 3D, IoT…).

The winners will receive digital equipment, a 1000 euros scholarship, coaching/mentoring, workshops and a strong media exposure.

Delphine Remy-Boutang, CEO the Bureau & JFD, President GEN France, states:

“It’s time to put our next tech champions into orbit. As every year with our partners, we will support the winners to accelerate their growth and provide them with media exposure valued at €1 million.”

Applications must be submitted by Monday 17 January 2022 at 23:59 (GMT+1) via the form available at www.joinjfd.com. The finalists’ applications will be pre-selected by the JFD and presented to a jury of experts on Thursday 10 February 2022 for deliberations behind closed doors at the Sorbonne, in order to define the winners of the 6 categories: Entrepreneur Europe, Entrepreneur Africa, Intrapreneur Europe, Intrapreneur Africa, Junior Europe and Junior Africa. The award ceremony, under the high patronage of the President of the French Republic, will take place during the 10th anniversary of the JFD on March 8, 2022.

Translated from Lancement de l’appel à candidature des prix Les Margaret par l’accélérateur ‘La Journée de la Femme Digitale’