OSOR Awards 2023 - FAQ

The solution or initiative must be developed for or implemented by a public organisation from an EU Member State, EFTA country associated with the Digital Europe Programme (Iceland, Liechtenstein and norway) or an EU candidate country whose Association Agreement with the Digital Europe Programme has entered into force (currently Ukraine). Complete list of eligible countries:

No. The eligible countries must be an EU Member State, EFTA country associated with the Digital Europe Programme, or an EU candidate country whose Association Agreement with the Digital Europe Programme has entered into force. Please see the list above.

No. As long as the solution description and supplementary documentation provided via the submission form are in English, your solution will qualify for entry.

Yes, you can do it together with the public sector organisation and you need to get their consent. When submitting, you need to inform us about the details of the administration you have worked with and provide a name and email address of the contact person from this organisation.

No. The solution or initiative that is eligible for the contest must be developed for or implemented by a public organisation from an EU Member State, EFTA country associated with the Digital Europe Programme, or an EU candidate country whose Association Agreement with the Digital Europe Programme. However, solutions and initiatives using or implementing fully or partially a product, code, or service developed by EU institutions can submit to the awards, as long as they are based in eligible countries.

Your complete application needs to be submitted by 23:59 on 21 September 2023.

You need to fill in the submission form, no later than 23:59 on 21 September 2023. Please read the procedure guide carefully before submitting.

Yes. One organisation can enter several projects. However, this is not possible via one entry. You need to submit a form for each.

In the case of a shared project, there has to be a leading administration that applies for the award. However, the awards are given for teams and organisations, and not individuals, so the joint submission is completely fine and welcomed!

No, you need to represent the team or organisation behind the initiative or solution.

You can save a draft by clicking the ‘save draft’ button on the online form. Once you have saved a draft version of your responses, you must save the link that will be given at the end of the session. Use this link to access the draft version you saved previously to continue working on the submission form. When you finalise your application, hit ‘submit’.

The submission form will ask you to provide essential technical information to help the jury understand your application. You will also need to answer questions about the goals, motivations, and governance of the solution or initiative you represent. Furthermore, the questionnaire assesses the sustainability, uptake, reuse, and collaboration aspects of the candidates. You can find the full list of the questions in the Procedure Guide and in the submission form.

All of the answers are part of the evaluation by the expert jury. However, if you have no answer on certain fields, simply enter N/A.

The eligibility assessment will be performed by the OSOR team. All eligible solutions will be assessed by a team of experts, who will shortlist the 20 best candidates for the awards. The Public Sector Achievement Award will be then selected by a Jury, which consists of representatives from European Institutions.  The OSOR Community Award will be voted by the community via the OSOR website on Joinup.

There are three main stages in the selection process:

1. The OSOR team checks the entries meet the eligibility criteria.
2. An OSS expert team pre-selects 20 entries for the Jury, to be published on the OSOR website for a community vote.
3. Jury chooses 6 finalists for the Achievement Award, and the public chooses the winner of the OSOR Community Award.

Please see the Procedure Guide for details.

The OSOR Award 2023 Jury will evaluate the entries against the criteria, outlined in the Procedure Guide. They will seek to award the solutions and initiatives that can serve as an inspiration for other European public services, that ‘thought outside the box’, solved a difficult issue for their constituency, made a complicated process easier for their entities, that contributed to democratic participation in digital transformation of public services, or that in some other way used Open Source Software as a tool to add value to citizens and public services.

Six entries will be shortlisted by the Jury for the EU Public Sector Open Source Achievement Award, The final ranking will be announced at the Awards Ceremony on 21 November. 3 first places will be awarded.

Additionally, 1 entry will be chosen for the  OSOR Community Award through the public vote via the Joinup platform.

Shortlisted candidates will be announced on 29 September 2023, and published at the OSOR website for the community vote.

Winners selected by the Jury and the OSOR community will be announced at the OSOR 15-year anniversary event Open Source Observatory turns 15: From pioneering to mainstreaming open technologies in public services on 21 November 2023. The six finalists and the community vote winner will be invited to the event for the ceremony and to present their initiatives and solutions.

The representatives of the top 6 entries and the winner of the OSOR Community Award will be invited to Brussels for the event celebrating 15 years of OSOR - Open Source Observatory turns 15: From pioneering to mainstreaming open technologies in public services on 21 November 2023. The conference organisers will support them in arranging travel and accommodation and will cover the costs for 1 person per solution.

The representatives of these top entries will be invited to present their solutions or initiatives during this large event convening participants from the EU Member States public administrations and private sector, European Institutions, NGOs, and various open source communities and associations. The Award ceremony will follow this dedicated session. 

The presentation of a solution should last a maximum of 5 min and can include various media forms such as presentations, videos, or demos. The organisers will support the teams in preparing their presentations.

Of course, we are happy to have you at the Open Source Observatory turns 15: From pioneering to mainstreaming open technologies in public services on 21 November 2023. However, the European Commission will cover the travel costs for one representative of the team. The rest has to be covered by the attendee's organisation or themselves.