Two new competitions have been launched to identify infrastructure ideas for northern England from industry professionals and members of the public age 25 and under.
The competitions, which are being promoted via Twitter on #GreatNorthPlan, are split into separate categories:
The George Stephenson Prize for Great Northern Infrastructure 2030
The George Stephenson Prize offers industry professionals the opportunity to showcase their infrastructure concepts to the public in a different way, and to develop interest in and discussion around their plans.
A panel of judges, selected as specialists in infrastructure, will select a shortlist and a winner to help bring attention to the most interesting and innovative ideas for transforming the North of England.
The Great North Plan Prize for Inspirational Infrastructure Ideas 2050
The Great North Plan Prize seeks less conventional, longer-term plans from public entrants aged 25 or under.The winner will receive a cheque for £1,000. This prize is supported by Heathrow Airport.
All entries in both competitions will be eligible for use in IPPR marketing around the project, and chosen entrants will be invited to participate in a final conference event to showcase ideas from both contests.
Entries for both competitions close at midday, 12 September 2014, and the judges’ decision will be final. The best and most innovative ideas will be featured on the competition website.
The competition is being organised by IPPR, an independent charity that specialises in providing detailed policy research and analysis. IPPR North, IPPR’s dedicated think-tank for the North of England, operates out of offices in Newcastle and Manchester.
The two competitions and #GreatNorthPlan are being run to inform IPPR North’s wider work on northern infrastructure, under the project banner Infrastructure North.
The project is exploring the distribution and impact of infrastructure on the North of England, while the two competitions are aimed at informing what the future for the northern regions of England might be.
The Infrastructure North project is due to be completed around December 2014. It will set out the value of major infrastructure investments to economic rebalancing, and showcase many of the best of the ideas that emerge from the two competitions, as well as some ideas from the #GreatNorthPlan campaign.
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