‍The Swarovski Foundation and United Nations Office for Partnerships are seeking young creatives worldwide that use the creative process to accelerate awareness, technology, or solutions for sustainable development.

For the third year, the Swarovski Foundation Creatives for Our Future program is open to creatives worldwide, aged 21 to 30, from across disciplines including fashion, design, art, architecture, and engineering. Six successful applicants will receive financial support of€20,000, along with an education program in collaboration with top international institutions, tailored one-on-one mentorship, and industry networking opportunities to advance their innovation and career.

Entries for this year's program are now open until 27 June 2023 (23:59 pm BST) at www.sfcreatives.org.Successfulapplicantswill be notified and announced publicly in September 2023, at a reception hosted at the United Nations Headquarters in New York. 

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Previous successful applicants include:

‍Sejal Budholiya, a 22-year-old from Bengaluru in India who, after graduating from the Creatives for Our Future program, collaborated with another program alumna, Polish graphic designer Agnieszka Doczynska, to raise awareness about women’s health and menstruation by creating an open-source educational kit called Menstrupedia.  

Joshua Ichor, a 22-year-old from Nigeria, survived a severe Thyroid infection which was caused by contaminated water use. With the help of Creatives for Our Future, he developed a hand pump monitoring system and built a clean water kiosk for communities.

Aradhita Parasrampuria, a 24-year-old from New York, has taken her algae-based fashion/textile embellishment to the next level through the Creatives for Our Future program by setting up her algae-cellulose beading company, promoting the use of Bio Embellishment - which are embellishments made from a range of biopolymers and natural pigment - in the fashion industry and biodegradable beads in the cosmetic industry to reduce microplastic pollution and carbon emissions. 

Marisa Schiestl-Swarovski, Chair of the Swarovski Foundation said:

“The Swarovski Foundation believes education is the most valuable gift we can give back to the world. Our mission is to promote sustainable livelihoods through education to reduce inequality. This is the third year we’ve run Creatives for Our Future - having so far helped 15 successful applicants with the skills, tools and opportunities to develop their ground-breaking ideas and turn them into reality. We believe in the power of young creatives to lead sustainable development by unlocking innovative new approaches and trying to draw in a diverse pool of applicants globally to bring new voices and perspectives to the creative process. Having received over 600 submissions from 90 countries in the past 2 years we’re excited to see what this year’s applicants have to offer”.