Call for applications: Nine dots prize essay-writing contest

The Nine Dots Prize is an international competition that seeks to reward original and creative thinking tackling contemporary societal issues. For its new prize, now open for applications, the inaugural question is: “Are digital technologies making politics impossible?” The winner will be awarded US $100,000 to write a short book of between 25,000 and 40,000 words expanding on their ideas.All those aged 18 and over are welcome to enter, but responses and the resulting book must be in English. The prize board is looking for innovative thinking, whether this comes from new voices or from experienced authors. The prize’s heartland is in the social sciences, but responses…

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The Nine Dots Prize is an international competition that seeks to reward original and creative thinking tackling contemporary societal issues.

For its new prize, now open for applications, the inaugural question is: “Are digital technologies making politics impossible?”

The winner will be awarded US $100,000 to write a short book of between 25,000 and 40,000 words expanding on their ideas.

All those aged 18 and over are welcome to enter, but responses and the resulting book must be in English. The prize board is looking for innovative thinking, whether this comes from new voices or from experienced authors. The prize’s heartland is in the social sciences, but responses that draw on all disciplines and cross-discipline thinking are welcome. Joint responses from multiple authors will be considered, although proposals that put forward a number of authors who are all contributing to single sections (such as an edited collection) will not be accepted.

To apply online, please click here

Entrants are asked to respond to the Nine Dots Prize question in a 3,000-word summary. The summary should cover the main arguments that the proposed book will set out, the previous research or ideas on which it draws and the key conclusions it will reach. An outline structure of this short book, including provisional chapter headings, can also be submitted, as well as a justification of your ability to complete the book in the time given (approximately nine months).

The submission deadline is 31 January 2017.

The winner will be announced in May 2017, and the winner’s book will be published in May 2018.

For more information, please click here, read the submission guidelines for applicants here, read the prize rules here or send an email to [email protected].

The Nine Dots Prize is sponsored by the Kadas Prize Foundation, with support from the Centre for Research in the Arts, Social Sciences and Humanities at the University of Cambridge and Cambridge University Press. The aim of the prize is to promote, encourage and engage innovative thinking to address the problems facing the modern world. The name of the prize references the nine-dots puzzle – a lateral-thinking puzzle that can only be solved by thinking outside the box.