The Cemex-Tec Award includes four complementary categories: Transforming Communities, Social Entrepreneurs, Community Entrepreneurship, and Collaborative Action.
The Social Entrepreneurs category received the highest number of entries with 870 projects; followed by the Community Entrepreneurship category with 372 projects; Transforming Communities with 258 projects; and Collaborative Action with 178 projects.
This year, projects from 31 Mexican states were registered, for a total of 717 projects from 143 universities. Also, 170 universities from 61 countries participated, with Colombia, the Dominican Republic, and Argentina accounting for the highest number of registrations. Likewise, the Cemex-Tec Award continued to enjoy high participation from European countries, such as Spain, France, Germany, the United Kingdom, and the Czech Republic, among others.
Of the total number of agents of change who applied for the Cemex-Tec Award, 51% were women, and 49% were men, with an average age of 32 years. Over the past ten years, the Cemex-Tec Award has received entries from 5,443 projects from 90 countries, with more than 8,600 people participating in the initiative.
For the 2020 edition, the winning projects will not only receive a grant, but also participate in a two-week virtual bootcamp called 'Experience Week', which will take place from September 21 to October 2. Through Experience Week, participants will receive specialised training, one-on-one mentoring with international experts, cultural activities, and networking spaces with partners such as Ashoka, MassChallenge, MakeSense, Unreasonable Mexico, Impact Hub, and Sirolli Institute.
"We are very proud of the trajectory of the CEMEX-Tec Award over the past ten years. To see the transformation of this initiative, increasing its impact and expanding its reach to projects in 90 countries that are now part of the Cemex-Tec community," said Martha Herrera, Cemex's global director of Responsible Business and director of the Cemex-Tec Center for Sustainable Communities.
The Cemex-Tec Award reaffirms its global commitment to building a better future by encouraging and promoting high-impact sustainable development proposals and projects through innovation and social entrepreneurship.
