Google offers £2m for UK charities with big tech ideas

Google offering up £2m for UK charities that can solve problems with tech
Google - giving a little back

Google has roped in some big names judges to help it award £2 million in awards for non-profit organisations in Britain who come up with the best ideas of how tech can transform lives.

Four prizes of £500,000 each will be awarded for those non-profits who are chosen in the Global Impact Challenge at http://g.co/impactchallenge, with a judging panel of Sir Tim Berners-Lee, Sir Richard Branson, Jilly Forster, Matt Brittin and Jacquelline Fuller picking out three of the winners from a shortlist of ten.

The fourth will be picked out by a public vote - also from the shortlist (which will be selected by a team of Googlers).

Scratching the surface

"The Web's contribution to economic progress has been much celebrated, but I believe that we are only scratching the surface of its potential to solve social and political problems," said world wide web creator and judge Berners-Lee

It's certainly a laudable idea from Google - and one that will garner some high profile and exciting entries, but a lot of the smaller charities may well not have the time to resource to compete.

So, if you have an amazing idea and/or 'mad tech skills' then we reckon there will be queue of worthy causes that would love to hear from you. Because a cool half mil can certainly make the world a better place.

Patrick Goss

Patrick Goss is the ex-Editor in Chief of TechRadar. Patrick was a passionate and experienced journalist, and he has been lucky enough to work on some of the finest online properties on the planet, building audiences everywhere and establishing himself at the forefront of digital content.  After a long stint as the boss at TechRadar, Patrick has now moved on to a role with Apple, where he is the Managing Editor for the App Store in the UK.