Competition rules for the 'REDISCOVER Nature' photo competition

The European Environment Agency is inviting you to reconnect with nature and capture all its wonders on camera. So grab your cameras and go for a hike on a local trail or relax in your garden and observe the tree leaves bending or the fluffy clouds floating in the sky. Be curious and discover the parts of nature you have never noticed before, both small and large.

Competition winners will receive a cash prize, and all entries may be promoted by the EEA and its partners across Europe.

How to enter

• Take or create an original photo (long side at least 2000px, preferably more than 4960px) supported by a short text and following the guidelines in the Competition rules.

• Submit your entry through the online submission form.

Entry is free of charge. Submission of an entry will be taken to mean acceptance of the Competition rules and the Terms and Conditions.

General rules

Citizens of the following countries are eligible to enter the competition: EU 27 Member States, Iceland, Liechtenstein, Norway, Switzerland and Turkey; under the stabilisation and association agreements: North Macedonia, Albania, Kosovo*, Montenegro, Serbia and Bosnia and Herzegovina.

United Kingdom citizens: Please be aware that after the entry into force of the EU-UK Withdrawal Agreement on 1 February 2020 and in particular Articles 127(6), 137 and 138, UK citizens are eligible to participate in this competition.

The photos must be taken in one of the countries listed above.

All participants must be 18 or older.

You must have full copyrights to the submitted material. By submitting an entry, you will be presumed to have agreed to accept the Competition rules and the Terms and Conditions. One entrant may submit maximum five entries in total in the competition. As each entry will be handled separately, you need to fill out the online submission form for each entry if you chose to submit more than one entry.

Competition submissions must not include any endorsements of products or services, or any obscene, violent, racist or defamatory content. Incomplete entries or entries that do not comply with the formal specifications will be automatically disqualified.

Submissions may also not be accepted into the contest if the image in the entry features an identifiable individual who has not given their consent to appear or if the image features advertising or trademarks, which would otherwise require the EEA to obtain permission to use.

*This designation is without prejudice to positions on status, and is in line with UNSCR 1244 and the ICJ Opinion on the Kosovo Declaration of Independence.

Technical requirements

Submissions must contain one photograph and accompanying text.

• Photo: In electronic format (e.g.: .jpeg, .png, .tiff), minimum resolution of 2000 pixels -- preferably more than 4960 pixels -- on the long side of the photograph.

• Text: Short title and a text of maximum 1000 characters in English

Judging criteria

The judges will look for a creative, engaging and inspiring submission. Your entry will be judged on:

• Relevance of your entry to the competition topic

• Creativity expressed

• Technical ability

• Persuasiveness of the entry

The organisers and judges reserve the right to remove any entries from the competition that they feel may breach any of the Competition rules, the Terms and Conditions or may bring the competition into disrepute. Such entries will be disqualified.

Prizes and notification of winners

The winners in each category (Close-ups of nature, Nature on my doorstep, Zoom out on nature) will be awarded a cash prize of EUR 1000, while EUR 500 is on offer for both the Public Choice Award and the Youth Prize.

The Youth Prize will be awarded to the winning entry, selected among those submitted by persons aged between 18 and 24 (born between calendar years 1996-2002) to any of the competition categories.

All finalists will be put forward for the Public Choice Award and may also feature in future digital and print material from the EEA and its European partners.

The winners will be notified by email therefore please make sure that you provide correct contact information in the submission form. The official announcement of the winners will follow on 16 November 2020.

Copyrights

The copyright of the materials submitted for this competition remains with the respective participants. However, each entrant grants the EEA and its partners the right to use the submitted materials in its environmental communication crediting the copyright owners.

Confidentiality and protection of personal data

The personal data you provide in the submission form of the EEA outreach competition is processed in accordance with regulation (EU) 2018/1725 of the European Parliament (OJ L 295/39 of 21.11.2018) and of the Council of 23 October 2018 on the protection of natural persons with regard to the processing of personal data by the Union institutions, bodies, offices and agencies and on the free movement of such data. No personal data is shared with third parties for direct marketing purposes. For further detailed information please refer to the competition Specific Privacy Statement.