The Singapore Prize is awarded to individuals or teams whose outstanding work makes a real difference in the lives of others. The winners are rewarded with cash prizes and recognition to help propel their career development. In addition, they are given access to a mentorship programme that helps them scale their projects and ideas for greater impact.

This year, the Prize has expanded to include a new category: the Scholarship for Young People with Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD). This award will recognise a student from a school that serves students with ASD and is judged by a panel of judges.

Applicants can submit their entries online before the submission deadline. A panel of judges will select 20 artworks to be shortlisted. The Judges Prize of S$1,400 will be awarded to the best work. S$3,500 will be awarded to the school of the Judges Prize winner, while the Public Vote Prize of S$700 will be awarded to the work that receives the most votes.

The finalists for the prize will be announced at a ceremony in November. The event will also be an opportunity for the public to see the innovations from the finalists and learn about how they can make a positive impact on the world. The finalists will be given the opportunity to pitch their idea to a group of VIPs comprising of the publisher of Vogue Singapore, Bettina von Schlippe; vice-president of new business innovation at Conde Nast International, Ciara Byrne; and research engineer open innovations at BMW Group, Dr Stella Clarke.

This year’s competition has attracted over 400 applications. The selection process will include a rigorous review by an esteemed jury panel, which will choose the five best candidates to be presented to a global audience at the awards ceremony in Singapore. The winning works will be announced in November, with a catalytic prize of S$1 million for each winner to accelerate their solutions.

The Singapore Prize was created as part of the SG50 celebrations to mark the city-state’s 50th anniversary in 2014. Administered by the NUS Department of History, the prize is open to any non-fiction book-length work published during the application window that explores Singapore history. Entries can be written in English or translated and could focus on any time period, theme or field of Singapore history.