September
22
Monday
2025
Descripción
Once again, the Junta de Castilla y León has launched its open data contest to reward the innovative use of public information.
In this post, we summarize the details to participate in the IX edition of this event, which is an opportunity for both professionals and students, creative people or multidisciplinary teams who wish to give visibility to their talent through the reuse of public data.
What does the competition consist of?
The aim of the competition is to recognize projects that use open datasets from the Junta de Castilla y León. These datasets can be combined, if the participants wish, with other public or private sources, at any level of administration.
Projects can be submitted in four categories:
- Ideas category: aimed at people or teams who want to submit a proposal to create a service, studio, application, website or any other type of development. The project does not need to be completed; the important thing is that the idea is original, viable and has a potential positive impact.
- Products and services category: designed for projects already developed and accessible to citizens, such as online services, mobile applications or websites. All developments must be available via a public URL. This category includes a specific award for students enrolled in official education during the 2024/2025 or 2025/2026 school years.
- Didactic resource category: aimed at educational projects that use open data as a support tool in the classroom. The aim is to promote innovative teaching through Creative Commons licensed resources, which can be shared and reused by teachers and students.
- Data journalism category: it will reward journalistic works published or updated in a relevant way, in written or audiovisual format, that make use of open data to inform, contextualize or analyze topics of interest to citizens. The journalistic pieces must have been published in a printed or digital media since September 24, 2024, the day following the end date of the deadline for submission of candidacies of the immediately preceding call for awards.
In all categories, it is essential that at least one dataset from the open data portal of the Junta de Castilla y León is used. This platform has hundreds of datasets on different sectors such as the environment, economy, society, public administration, culture, education, etc. that can be used as a basis to develop useful, informative and transformative ideas.
Who can participate?
The competition is open to any natural or legal person, who can be presented individually or in a group. In addition, you can submit more than one application even for different categories. Although the same project may not receive more than one award, this flexibility allows the same idea to be explored from different approaches: educational, journalistic, technical or conceptual.
What prizes are awarded?
The 2025 edition of the contest includes prizes with a financial endowment, accrediting diploma and institutional dissemination through the open data portal and other communication channels of the Board.
The distribution and amount of the prizes by category is:
- Ideas category
- First prize: €1,500
- Second prize: €500
- Category products & services
- First prize: €2,500
- Second prize: €1,500
- Third prize: €500
- Special Student Prize: €1,500
- Category teaching resource
- First prize: €1,500
- Data journalism category
- First prize: €1,500
- Second prize: €1,000
Under what criteria are the prizes awarded? The jury will assess the candidatures considering different evaluation criteria, as set out in the rules and the order of call, including their originality, social utility, technical quality, feasibility, impact, economic value and degree of innovation.
How to participate?
As in other editions, candidacies can be submitted in two ways:
- In person, at the General Registry of the Ministry of the Presidency, at the registry assistance offices of the Junta de Castilla y León or at the places established in article 16.4 of Law 39/2015.
- Electronics, through the electronic headquarters of the Junta de Castilla y León
Each application must include:
- Identification data of the author(s).
- Title of the project.
- Category or categories to which it is submitted.
- An explanatory report of the project, with a maximum length of 1,000 words, providing all the information that can be assessed by the jury according to the established scale.
- In the case of submitting an application to the Products and Services category, the URL to access the project will be specified
The deadline to submit proposals is September 22, 2025
With this contest, the Junta de Castilla y León reaffirms its commitment to the open data policy and the culture of reuse. The competition not only recognizes the creativity, innovation and usefulness of the projects presented, but also contributes to disseminating the transformative potential of open data in areas such as education, journalism, technology or social entrepreneurship.
In previous editions, solutions to improve mobility, interactive maps on forest fires, tools for the analysis of public expenditure or educational resources on the rural environment, among many other examples, have been awarded. You can read more about last year's winning proposals and others on our website. In addition, all these projects can be consulted in the history of winners available on the community's open data portal.
We encourage you to participate in the contest and get the most out of open data in Castilla y León!
