There are fifteen Latin American finalists for the 2016 Innovators of America Award

Argentina, Chile, Colombia, Mexico, Panama, and Venezuela are the countries of origin of the fifteen applicants who passed the evaluation stage carried out by the researchers and jury, from a total of 690 applications received from all the Latin American region. 

This time, there was a tie of the finalist innovations between Colombia and Chile, with four finalists each. Mexico follows with three, Argentina with two, and Panama and Venezuela with one.  

Of these finalists, five will be chosen as winners, one per category. On September 16th, they will receive a prize of 50 thousand dollars and their respective thophy to certify that they are the new innovators of the region. 

The jury for Social Development included José Rogelio Vargas from Costa Rica, Judith Sutz from Uruguay, and Ulrich Frei (Switzerland), who selected Salvador Achondo (Chile), Isadora Hastings (Mexico), and Pablo Lecuona (Argentina) as finalists in their category. 

In Education, the finalists were Matías Badano (Argentina), Komal Dadlani (Chile), and Luz Marina Velásquez (Colombia). For this category, the jury included Jorge Mora Alfaro (Costa Rica), Miriam Abramovay (Brazil), and José Ramón Pin (Spain).

Alejandro Imbach, Mark Halle, and Claudio Valladares, from Argentina, the United States, and Brazil, respectively, chose Colombians Javier Mauricio Betancur and Juan Carlos Borrero, and Oscar Mariano Montiel, from Chile, in the Sustainability and Ecology Category.

For Enterprises and Industry, candidates for the prize are David Proenza, Petar Ostojic, and Jorge Ramírez, from Panama, Chile, and Colombia, respectively, and the jury included Anibal Fossatti from Panama, Gonzalo Rivas Gómez from Chile, and Mari Carmen Margelí from Spain.

In Science and Technology, the finalists are José Herrera, from Venezuela, and José Gerardo Zertuche and María Alejandra Bravo, both from Mexico. The jury included Miguel San Martín and Rodolfo Echarri, from Argentina, and Pedro Moneo, from Spain.

From this selection, the process will open for the election of the "Public's Favorite", where the Latin American community can vote for the favorite finalist in any of the five categories by accessing the web page www.innovadoresdeamerica.org, from August 11th until August 25th, 2016. 

This recognition, which is not binding to the final result, will enable the winning innovation to have a greater dissemination through the different traditional and digital means that are a part of the network of allies of Innovators of America.