The Professor Mário Ruivo Prize was awarded to a team of young people, aged 11-16 years old, for an original project on the theme: “Your Ocean, Your Future”. 

Three teams made it to the Do it! phase of the contest and spent the summer of 2016 putting their plans into action.

The project deemed to be most successful was selected by EurOcean Members and prizes were awarded in December 2016 during the CommOcean conference in Bruges, Belgium. 

Congrats to the Bags with Tags Team for winning the final competition!

Congratulations to the three projects that made it to the final! You can read all about their activities here. 

Protecting and sustaining marine life in Ireland 
Bags with Tags 
Marine Public Transport  

The Professor Mário Ruivo Prize is helping to put ideas into action by supporting the development of projects that will improve how humans interact with the ocean.

Below is the challenge we set our contestants in 2016.

We looked for ambitious, bright ideas from Europe’s youth, for a project or a study that can bring about real change in their communities. 

The contest ran over a series of phases:

Envision It (01 October 2015 – 08 April 2016):

Entrants will conceive the project they wish to undertake within the scope of the Prize theme. A maximum of ten teams per country will be eligible, so you need to convince the selection panel why your project idea is one of the best to represent your country. During this phase potential entrants will register via the online survey, briefly describe their project and why it should be selected.  Eligibility criteria are outlined below in “The Small Print”. 

Plan It (09 April 2016 – 31 May2016):

The selected entrants from each country will be informed and invited to prepare a proposal for how they will execute their idea. The proposal should be described and presented by using creative means to communicate the idea. This could involve the use of multimedia tools such as short videos (max. 2 mins), prezis, e-zines, powerpoint presentations, etc.

Sell It (01 June 2016- 30 June 2016):

With their proposals selected entrants will try to persuade the Jury to fund their project by providing a convincing reason why their idea is worthwhile. During this phase the Jury will evaluate the proposals and three teams will be selected to advance to the final stage.

Do It (01 July 2016 – 31 October 2016):

The three selected teams will compete against each other in executing their project. The team deemed to have been most successful in carrying out their plan will be selected as the overall Prize winner. 

A full description of the Contest, together with the Rules and Regulations, can be downloaded here.

Further Information…   If you have any doubts or questions just drop an email to Sandra and Ruth at mr.prize@eurocean.org.