The MyData Award celebrates exceptional achievement in building a more human-centric world.
The 2024-2025 MyData Awards help progress the MyData vision by recognising individuals and organisations who are making it happen — in business, technology, law and in society.
Since 2021, MyData Global’s annual awards have been a gold standard for the ethical use of personal data. This year, the Awards are being broadened in scope and revamped in order to provide better value and recognition to members and to grow support for our cause. Read on to find out more.
DEADLINE EXTENDED! Nominations are open now, until 14th Oct 2024.
NOMINATIONS ARE NOW OPEN
Following the launch on 13th June (recording here) we are pleased to announce that the Awards are now open for nominations!
Any individual or organisation can be nominated.
Self-nominations and multiple nominations are allowed and encouraged.
If you have questions or need help with your nomination, join our weekly office hours at 2-3pm CEST on Fridays. Join us on Google Meet.
About the new MyData Award
What is the award presented for?
The MyData Awards are given in recognition of meaningful contributions made towards realising the MyData Declaration in practice. Past and current activities with a potential for ongoing impact are eligible. We will reward activities in one or more of these four key areas:
- Technology – developing, innovating and implementing personal data infrastructure, empowerment technology, or other usable technologies that help individuals or organisations towards the human-centric and empowered future we seek.
- Governance – creating and implementing enactable regulatory policies, administrative rules, standards, codes of conduct, laws and other governance mechanisms that bring us closer towards the human-centric vision of the MyData Declaration.
- Business – operating financially sustainable businesses or service models that create economic or social value through personal data and prioritise individual empowerment and a better and more holistic data future.
- Thought Leadership – advancing understanding about the nature and importance of a human-centric approach, through education, research, advocacy, sense-making, thought leadership and influence among policy-makers, business leaders and the general public.
Who can receive an award?
- Any individual, collective or organisation may be nominated; not just specialist data intermediaries or MyData enthusiasts, but researchers, journalists, lawmakers, activists, entrepreneurs, futurists, innovators, charities and any other individual or group you can think of.
- To be eligible to receive an award, a nominated individual, collective or organisation must be a MyData Global member in good standing. Therefore, nominees who are not members will be encouraged to join, so that they might be recognised for their achievement.
- There will be no award application fee or charge to nominate. The only charge is the membership fee. For more details on fees for your organisation to join click here (or to join as an individual click here).
- Eligible, validated nominees whose achievements will be presented the Award if they are considered to have satisfactorily met the criteria (further details will be published soon).
- There is no limit to the number of Awards that can be granted.
What process will be used?
- Anyone, whether a member of MyData or not, may nominate themself or any individual or organisation inside or outside of the membership for consideration on the basis of activities undertaken.
- This is done by completing a nomination form, explaining the activity to be considered and providing justification (in up to four categories) for why the nominee’s activity has or is having impact and is worthy of recognition.
- The nomination will be reviewed, with the form response being supplemented by additional information gathering where needed.
- Candidate awardees (those nominations deemed satisfactory in staff pre-checks) will by evaluated by judging panels (made from staff and member volunteers) against established criteria.
- Awardees will be presented with their award at a ceremony in January 2025.
What are the benefits of receiving the award?
Awardees will be able to show their award as either a “MyData Award 2024” or “MyData Award 2025” badge, depending on their needs. This will validate their organisational brand or personal reputation and be a valuable branding asset in any publicity.
All recipients will receive the same award badge, but may earn it through different categories, establishing their achievement as (for example), a:
- MyData-aligned technology
- MyData-aligned governance model
- MyData-aligned business, or
- MyData-aligned thought leader.
What are the criteria by which applications will be judged?
The MyData Awards recognise achievements, progress and impact towards the more human-centric world in the MyData Declaration. We seek 3 shifts, namely:
- Making digital and data rights more actionable
- Empowerment and protection of individuals through personal data
- Moving from closed to open ecosystems
We approach these shifts through the pursuit of the following principles:
- Human-centric control – where you decide how your personal data is used, by being given visibility and control over data and data-based algorithms and decisions
- Individual as the point of integration – being given a joined-up, holistic and accurate view of your data from different sources
- Empowered individuals – where we are free and autonomous agents with agency and initiative over our digital lives
- Portability – where your data can be accessed and re-used however you like, and lock-in is avoided so that your data relationships are portable too
- Transparency and Accountability – where data holders are open about how they collect and use personal data, explain their decisions so that people can understand and make informed decisions.
- Interoperability – where common business practices and technical standards allow personal data and information to flow freely, with individual consent and control
Applicants will be expected to make a case (using objective evidence) as to how they advance one or more of these shifts and objectives. Those applicants judged (by staff and community members) to have made significant impact towards any of the three shifts and the six principles above will qualify for the Award. These shifts and principles are detailed in full in the Declaration, you should read it before continuing.
What is the timeline for the awards?
Award nominations: Nominations are now open to all. Nominations close at the end of the day on 14th Oct 2024 (any timezone) (extended by 2 weeks from original 30 Sep deadline).
Review period: Nominations will be reviewed during October – November 2024 (preliminary staff recommendations, followed by community review). During this period any non-member nominees selected as candidate awardees will need to sign the Declaration and join MyData.
Awarding period: Awardees who are signed-up members will be notified in December. There will be an awards ceremony in January with the European Commission roundtable. A report on the state of the art, based on awardees’ qualifying work, will follow.
WHY APPLY?
For businesses, governments and other organisations, receiving a MyData Award demonstrates tangible process towards more ethical approaches to personal data that give individuals control in line with the MyData Declaration. The benefits for companies and organisations are numerous. As an organisational recipient, your company or organisation will:
- stand out in the sector to both partners as well as users;
- gain an edge when bidding for contracts;
- reassure investors and funders that they are taking a right – a human-centric – approach;
- instil pride in their workforce;
- join the growing MyData movement of ethical personal data companies;
- get ahead of the curve on new legislation and standards;
- become a crucial part of changing the personal data market.
- By participating in the award process, companies start or continue their journey towards interoperability as they search for common practices, standards, and technologies.
For individuals, receiving a MyData Award is an award you can proudly show on your website or CV, to demonstrate to your colleagues and followers that the work you are doing is significant and impactful and building a better world. And in awarding the MyData award to prominent policymakers, activists, researchers and journalists, we can all raise the profile of the MyData mission, attract new members, and, bit by bit, influence public opinion and raise awareness of personal data control issues.
Nominate yourself – or others – for the Award
Nominations for the 2024-2025 Award are now open, click the buttons above to make a nomination or read the guide.
Please contact alex@mydata.org for any enquiries.
You can nominate yourself or any other individual, collective or organisations for the MyData Award on the strength of your/their achievement(s) in any (including multiple) of the categories of Business, Technology, Governance, or Thought Leadership.
All nominations follow a self-description process, where evidenced achievements can be argued to contribute to moving the world closer to that envisioned in the MyData Declaration. This is in recognition of measurable progress, not status, plans or intents. This is not a certification process.
Eligibility for nomination
Any individual, collective or organisation may be nominated for free, even if they are not currently a MyData member. It is our hope that this approach will help grow the MyData movement.
Eligibility to receive the Award
Any individual or organisation who is eligible, validated and selected, must be (or must become) a MyData Global member, and must have signed the MyData Declaration, in order to officially recognised as an Award holder.
PREVIOUS AWARDS
The MyData Awards span out of the MyData Operator Award that ran during 2020-2023 and the MyData In Practice Award 2023. To date, 60+ service providers have received the MyData Operator Award, and 5 have received the MyData in Practice Award.
Meet the 2023 awardees
30 service providers from 16 countries received the MyData Award 2023, an important recognition of the efforts of organisations and companies in Europe and worldwide in empowering individuals with personal data and giving them practical tools to take control of their digital lives.
Awarded organisations were required to demonstrate how they create agency for human-centric data control, and how the data and value flows in their ecosystems. To be considered for the award, these organisations had to show how their services have the potential to interoperate with data sources, data using services, and each other. The core part of the applications are available on demand. Since 2023, the awards have been broadened to encompass all sectors of society, not just MyData Operators.