The European Union launches a regional Reels contest “Reels4SustainableEnergy” among university students, young researchers and young professionals in the area of engineering, energy, environment or climate studies from Central Asia

BACKGROUND INFORMATION

The European Union (EU) is a global leader on climate action and green transition.  The EU and the five Central Asia (CA) countries, namely, Kazakhstan, the Kyrgyz Republic, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, and Uzbekistan, work together to build synergies for sustainable energy sector and make the region a stronger player on the global scene.

In line with the European Green Deal, EU Strategy on Central Asia, and the Global Gateway Team Europe Initiative on Water, Energy and Climate Change in Central Asia, the EU is committed to support CA countries in their current transition to green energy by “building upon the region’s potential in solar, wind and hydroelectric energy” in order to “contribute to strengthening the region’s energy resilience, helping to meet its climate objectives, and creating jobs and business opportunities on both sides.”

The CA region has abundant sustainable energy potential; it possesses an estimated 5 % of the world’s natural capacity for wind and solar energy capture. The five countries of CA need to scale up the development of renewable energy sources and become far more energy efficient.

The EU fosters CA countries energy resilience through sharing its best available techniques and expertise in renewables (RE) and energy efficiency (EE). At the EU-Central-Asia Conference on Connectivity in November 2022 in Samarkand, the EU and CA countries agreed to facilitate cooperation in the energy field to accelerate the green energy transition in Central Asia, in particular by promoting RE and EE as well as through introduction of energy-efficient and resource saving technologies.

THE CONTEST PURPOSES

As part of the EU–CA Sustainable Energy Days, the EU-funded project “Sustainable Energy Connectivity in Central Asia” (SECCA) is pleased to launch an Instagram reels (short video) contest among university students, young researchers, and young professionals in the area of engineering, energy, environment or climate studies from the CA countries “Reels4SustainableEnergy” under the slogan “Accelerating the clean energy transition – towards lower bills and greater skills”.

The purposes of the contest “Reels4SustainableEnergy” are to promote the environmental and economic benefits of saving energy, facilitate energy efficiency, increase public awareness on the need to develop renewable energy sources, and foster creative capacity of university students, young researchers and young professionals of energy companies and/or organizations from Central Asia.

Through the reels the applicants (contestants) should showcase simple practices how people can save energy in daily lives, as well as transit to RE. The reels should teach relatives, friends, neighbours, and public at large about the benefits of energy efficiency, what can be done to reduce consumption, and possibly change behaviour pattern, as well as encourage the use of energy-efficient alternatives for heating, cooling, transport, and other daily activities.

Young people will get a chance to express themselves in a creative way and share their vision through Instagram Reels, as well as inspire others to reduce energy consumption and to successfully promote energy saving.

As a result of the contest, 6 winners will be selected (one I prize, two II prizes, three III prizes). The winners will take part in an international study tour to learn about the European experience in RE, EE and sustainable energy transition. The study tour will be organized by the SECCA project and is tentatively scheduled for autumn 2023.

THE CONTEST TERMS AND CONDITIONS

Eligibility:

To participate in the contest, the applicants (contestants) should meet the following criteria:

• Be a citizen of one of the five Central Asia countries (Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan or Uzbekistan).
• Age 18-35.
• Be a student of an university in one of the CA countries in the area of engineering, energy, environment or climate studies, or young researcher of an energy, environmental or climate research institution in one of the CA countries, or a young professional of an energy / environmental company or organisation from one of the CA countries.

The SECCA project reserves the right to check whether the applicant (contestant) meets the eligibility requirements through a student’s ID check, employment verification check as well as applicants age check.

The language of the contest reels dialogue/audio (if any) should be either English or Russian, or Kazakh, Kyrgyz, Tajik, Turkmen, Uzbek with the translation into English or Russian.

The Contest period shall start at 12:00 a.m. Astana time (UTC+6) on 30 March 2023 and end at 23:59 p.m. Astana time (UTC +6) on 19 May 2023.

How to enter the contest:  

• Each applicant (contestant) must have a personal Instagram account and be subscribed to the SECCA’s Instagram account (https://www.instagram.com/secca.eu/).
• Each applicant (contestant) has to verify their Instagram account is set as a “Public account” to ensure viewability of all entries.
• During the above-mentioned Contest Period, each applicant (contestant) who will upload a self-made Instagram Reels to their personal Instagram account with the hashtag #Reels4Energy (or#Reels4SustainableEnergy) and @secca.eu tag is entering the contest. Please note that the maximum duration of each uploaded Instagram Reels shall not be more than 90 seconds. After uploading the reels with the required hashtag and tag, each applicant (contestant) must fill in the application form (please see below) and send it to the e-mail address: media@secca.eu
• Each applicant (contestant) may upload no more than 3 Instagram Reels under the hashtag #Reels4Energy (or #Reels4SustainableEnergy) and @secca.eu tag.

The contest reels content:

• Cannot not include any offensive or violent scenes.
• Cannot derogate, defame, or misrepresent any person or a company/organization.
• Cannot advertise or promote any brand or product of any kind, without permission.
• Cannot infringe music copyright laws of Meta Platforms, Inc.: applicants (contestants) must verify that the song/music they are using is part of the official Instagram library.

If the contest reels will contain any material/element which is not owned by the applicant (contestant), and which is subject to the copyright by a third party, in this case, the applicant (contestant) shall be responsible for obtaining, prior to submission of the reels, any consents necessary to permit the use of such material/element. The applicant (contestant) shall also obtain the consent/permission from any person who appears in or is identifiable in the reels.

SECCA shall not be liable if the applicants (contestants) infringe the copyright laws with their reels.

The Evaluation Committee will be established to evaluate the contest reels. The Evaluation Committee shall include representatives of the Cooperation and/or Political, Press and Information Sections of the EU Delegations to Central Asian countries, as well as the SECCA project expert team.

The main evaluation criteria are the following:

• Relevance/compliance with the theme
• Creativity
• Understanding of the subject
• Quality of the video (reels).

The contest results shall be announced at the Award Ceremony as part of the Sustainable Energy Conference to be organized by SECCA in Astana on 2 June 2023.The Award Ceremony will be held in a hybrid format allowing for contestants from other than Astana locations join it online.