DreamSpace Academy won the Falling Walls Science Engagement Award

On Friday last week, DreamSpace Academy won the Falling Walls Science Engagement award of the year, among 81 applications from 44 countries. Falling Walls Engage is one of the largest international platforms for all forms of science engagement, co-organised by Falling Walls Foundation, Robert Bosch Stiftung, Helmholtz Association, Federal Ministry of Education and Research and many universities around the world.

DreamSpace Academy is a community innovation center that tackles socio-economic and environmental challenges using project-based learning. Our mission is to empower creative minds through Maker Education, to create innovative local solutions using Open Innovation, and ultimately leading them to become successful Social Entrepreneurs.

The winner of this year‘s @Falling_Walls Engage conference is „DreamSpace Academy“ from Sri Lanka! The project provides workshops for children and teenagers, encouraging them to deal with social and ecological issues using science. https://t.co/Ewl8uQ16eW #FallingWalls19 pic.twitter.com/JjYUncvr4x

— RobertBosch Stiftung (@BoschStiftung) November 8, 2019

Press coverage

Nov 8, 2019 – Falling Walls Engage: Award for the best project in science communication (German), Cornelia Varwig, Strategische Kommunikation, Robert Bosch Stiftung, https://idw-online.de/de/news726749

Nov 10, 2019 – Aravinth Panch, LinkedIn update, https://www.linkedin.com/feed/update/urn:li:activity:6599211080524804097/

Falling Walls – Dreamspace Academy profile, https://www.falling-walls.com/engage/finalists2019/kishoth_navaretnarajah

https://twitter.com/RBSscience/status/1193097257811431424

https://twitter.com/Brandt_Futurium/status/1193097890442465281

Visa issues

Kishoth Navaretnarajah, co-founder and director of DreamSpace Academy, was meant to present at Falling Walls but has been able to obtain a visa only at the very last minute and after several efforts and support letters by various organizations. Therefore Berlin-based Aravinth Panch, also co-founder of DreamSpace, presented the project at this year’s Falling Walls Engage event.

Seven (7) DreamSpace team members were denied their visa and could therefore not attend the award ceremony or other opportunities to engage with the maker culture and social innovation community in Berlin.