S+T+ARTS Prize Winners 2025

Friday 6th June, 2025 - Bruce Sterling

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https://ars.electronica.art/mediaservice/en/2025/06/04/starts-prize-winners-2025/

(Linz/Brussels, June 4, 2025) The European Commission’s 2025 STARTS Prize has been decided on. Now in its tenth year, the initiative received 1,657 submissions from 90 countries. (((That’s a lot!)))

This year’s “Grand Prize – Innovative Collaboration,” endowed with €20,000, goes to the LAS Art Foundation (DE) for its artistic research initiative Sensing Quantum. The program pro­motes creative engagement with quantum technologies and fosters an interdisciplinary dia­logue between artists and scientists with the goal of translating the dynamic field of quantum computing into immersive, tangible experiences. The “Grand Prize – Artistic Exploration,” also endowed with €20,000, goes to artist Sarah Ciston (US) for their project AI War Cloud Database. The database shows how commonly used AI systems are being deployed in war­fare—automatically and with serious consequences for civilians. AI War Cloud Database pro­vides an overview of system types, their manufacturers, and their use in both military and commercial contexts.

The STARTS Prize of the European Commission honors innovative projects that address so­cial, ecological, and economic challenges through interdisciplinary collaboration. Since 2016, the annual competition has been organized and run by Ars Electronica in Linz.

Exhibition at Ars Electronica Festival 2025

Both winning projects will be presented from September 3 to 7 at the 2025 Ars Electronica Festival in Linz. The jury—consisting of Irini Papadimitriou (UK), Veronica D’Souza (DK), Thomas Gegenhuber (AT), Francesca Bria (IT), and Asako Tomura (JP)—also awarded 10 Honorary Mentions and 18 Nominations. A selection of these will also be showcased at this year’s Ars Electronica. The official award ceremony of the STARTS Prize is part of the Prix Ars Electronica Award Ceremony and will take place on Thursday, September 4, 2025, at the Design Center Linz.

The S+T+ARTS Initiative in Figures

The STARTS Prize is part of the European Commission’s long-term STARTS initiative commit­ted to European innovation policy. It focuses on initiatives at the intersection of science, technology, and the arts that are dedicated to co-creating a positive and collective future. Since 2016, 381 residencies have been funded with more than €19 million, and a total of 274 STARTS Prize projects have been awarded. Between 2016 and 2024, a total of 17,243 pro­jects from 124 different countries were submitted to the competition, which is endowed with €40,000 annually.

The STARTS Prize is supported by a consortium of European partner institutions in the con­text of the STARTS Ec(h)o project. These include INOVA+, T6 Ecosystems, La French Tech Grande Provence, Sónar, the Salzburg Festival, TUD Technische Universität Dresden, the Me­dia Solution Center Baden-Württemberg, and the High-Performance Computing Center Stuttgart.

S+T+ARTS PRIZE ’25
Grand Prize – Innovative Collaboration

Awarded for the innovative collaboration between industry or technology and the arts (and the cultural and creative sectors in general) that opens new path­ways for innovation.

Sensing Quantum
LAS Art Foundation (DE)
„[…] Sensing Quantum opens up the complex world of quantum science to society at large. It is a powerful example of how art and culture can make emerging technologies more transparent, more democratic, and more human. While Europe builds the physical and digital infrastructure of the future—AI factories, quantum labs, supercomputers—this program offers a vital addition. It transforms critical technologies, and abstract concepts into stories, complex systems into emotions, and scientific infrastructure into shared experience.“

excerpt from the jury statement….