Nominet Trust Launches Fourth Annual Search for World’s Most Inspiring Social Tech

London, UK, 30 June 2016: Nominet Trust, the UK’s leading social tech funder, today launched the call for nominations for its fourth annual NT100 – a quest to find the 100 most inspiring social tech innovations from across the globe.

For the past three years, the NT100 has highlighted the world’s most remarkable examples of social innovation, where the internet and digital technology have been used to tackle critical social challenges. These projects are revolutionising healthcare and emergency response, transforming education, protecting the environment, and empowering communities. Previous alumni range from Google’s Project Loon increasing online access in remote communities and ZSL’s conservation tech, Instant Detect, to projects like Andiamo – a family start-up using 3D scanning and printing to produce children’s orthotics in just 48 hours, opposed to the standard 13 weeks! Since being featured in the 2015 NT100, many alumni have gone on to tackle emerging social challenges. Geocoding system What3Words, for example, is now helping to track the Zika virus in the US and Cholera in Tanzania.

Now in its fourth year, the UK’s largest tech for good campaign will focus on celebrating the organisations and people driving the use of digital technology to change the world for the better. Adopting a theme of ‘Everyday Tech Heroes’, the 2016 NT100 will profile inspiring people who have seen the effects of a problem in their communities and creatively deployed technology to tackle it. By shining a spotlight on these ordinary people doing extraordinary things, Nominet Trust hopes to inspire more individuals to use technology to make a positive difference in the world.

Candidates for the 2016 NT100 will comprise a combination of public nominations and Nominet Trust’s own research. From today, people around the world are invited to nominate the projects that have inspired them by visiting the Social Tech Guide – home of the NT100 – featuring all 1,300 ventures discovered since 2012. Just complete this short online form: http://socialtech.org.uk/nominate Nominations will be open until Friday 30 September 2016.

Vicki Hearn, Director of Nominet Trust, said: “In its fourth year, the NT100 is now well established in the tech for good calendar. We continue to discover impressive examples of the world’s most innovative social uses of the internet and digital technology. Many of the most inspiring initiatives are led by individuals who have seen a problem first hand and are creatively using tech to address it. These wonderful people are changing the world for the better and have inspired our special focus for this year – ‘Everyday Tech Heroes’.

“I’m so excited to be embarking on this journey once again, with fantastic partners to help us select the 2016 NT100. I can’t wait to see what amazing social tech projects we uncover this year.”

Nominet Trust welcomes back judging partners Big Lottery Fund, Comic Relief, Nominet, Oxfam and Telefonica O2, who all join for a second consecutive year, alongside new partners joining for the first time. The 2016 NT100 will be revealed in December.

Visit socialtech.org.uk for more information.

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Notes to editor
For more information, quotes, visuals or biographies, contact Sarah Evans sarah.evans@albiondrive.com / +44 (0) 20 7033 8908 or nominettrust@albiondrive.com

About Nominet Trust
Nominet Trust is the UK’s leading social tech funder. It provides 100 per cent grant funding, mentoring and business support to organisations using digital technology to address significant social challenges including health and wellbeing, economic empowerment and sustainability. Since 2009, Nominet Trust has invested more than £24m in projects harnessing technology to deliver real social change. Through partnerships and campaigns such as the inspirational NT100, Nominet Trust mobilises new approaches that will influence and accelerate the use of tech for social good. For more information about the trust, please visit: www.nominettrust.org.uk.

Nominet Trust was founded in 2008 by Nominet, the not-for-profit organisation responsible for the smooth and secure running of the .uk internet infrastructure. Nominet believes the internet is a powerful force for social and economic good, and is proud to be able to fund Nominet Trust’s work.

Comments from judging partners
Big Lottery Fund
“The Big Lottery Fund is very pleased to be joining Nominet Trust and other leading tech for good partners for the 2016 NT100. We are working with Nominet Trust and other funders to support the voluntary and community sector to learn how tech for good can enable people to improve the world around them. We hope that this year’s NT100 inspires more people to put technology to work in their own community projects.”
Joe Ferns, UK Knowledge and Portfolio Director, Big Lottery Fund

Comic Relief
“Comic Relief is excited again this year, to join the search for the world’s 100 most inspirational social tech projects in partnership with Nominet Trust. As ‘tech for good’ funders we enjoyed bringing our wider knowledge and expertise to the 2015 NT100 judging process, and our relationship with Nominet Trust goes from strength to strength on helping people to use technology as a tool for social change in the UK and beyond. For example, we continue to support Stoke Wavemaker, creating a digital exploration centre for young people, and to share learning from our ‘Tech for Good’ and ‘Social Tech Seed’ funding programmes to improve the quality of support for social tech projects.”
Judith McNeil, Grants Director, Comic Relief

Nominet
“We believe in the power of the internet to change lives for the better, but it’s people with ideas, passion and a desire to change the world, or their community, for the better that make it all happen. I’m looking forward to hearing the stories of the inspiring people behind the NT100 projects that are creating a more vibrant digital future.”
Russell Haworth, CEO, Nominet

O2
“At O2 we have set ourselves the goal of helping 20 million people live better lives with technology by 2020. We are committed to helping people gain the digital skills to help them build successful careers and use technology to achieve positive social and environmental change. That is why we are pleased to once again be supporting the NT100 – an initiative that showcases innovation, entrepreneurship and the power of technology as a force for good.”
Simon Miller, Comms & Reputation, O2

Oxfam
“As people access information, feedback on services and manage their finances in different ways around the world, the changing digital landscape is fundamentally changing the way Oxfam operates. In the tech space, much emphasis is often placed on innovation in tools, but at Oxfam we like to put more emphasis on innovation in methodology – namely how social tech can meet social objectives. Who could we reach we otherwise couldn’t? What information received or shared in the right format at the right time could change someone’s life? What networks can technology enable to turn an individual into a crowd?

People might not pursue careers in social tech because too often technology development is divorced from the objectives of social movements. Perhaps it’s harder to see the links or social good that can result? But initiatives like NT100 encourage us to think outside the box and draw inspiration from fields which might have dramatically different objectives than our own and bring that change closer to home. Last year the NT100 was a diverse carnival celebration of projects from the most high tech to the simplest “why didn’t I think of that” solutions across health, accountability and social justice. We hope this year lives up to our expectations of show casing and learning about not only the snazziest tools – but more importantly the applications in meaningful contribution to social good.”
Amy O’Donnell, ICT in Programme Lead, Oxfam