In the Global Congress 2020 of the World Summit Awards in Vienna,  Lithuanian solutions that got into the Top-40 of the best digital social innovations in the world received the awards - BitDegree (BitDegree, the category of Learning and Education) and ChestEye CAD (Oxipit, the category of Health and Well-Being). Moreover, BitDegree was acknowledged as the ultimate global winner in the category of Learning & Education Innovations. This is the first time when a solution nominated by Lithuania has become one of the World Summit Awards Digital Champions, i.e. the best innovation in the world in its category.

 “The team of BitDegree is absolutely thrilled about this global recognition. This award confirms that our ideas are right and gives us even more confidence to create world-class innovation from Lithuania. We believe we have the most advanced learning platform currently available that combines play elements, alternative models for the financing of distance learning, and enables employers to engage in the training process and find talent. Each of these elements was widely debated during the World Congress and found recognition among experts as a solution capable of contributing significantly to the United Nations Sustainable Development goals,” said Ginvilė Ramanauskaitė, BitDegree product and business customers manager, representing the company at the event.

“This is the year of excellent achievements for Lithuania. Out of more than 8000 solutions selected and nominated by 112 countries of the world, among the 40 winners who were elected, we have two winners from Lithuania, and one of them was also declared a global champion. This means that the BitDegree created by Lithuanians not only stands out as an innovation in technology, business model, the services provided, but is recognised as having the potential to make a significant impact globally. A smart, advanced and attractive training platform, such as BitDegree, is particularly useful and important in today's context, when we urgently transfer a bunch of our daily business processes into the digital space,” said Ieva Žilionienė, WSA Lithuanian national expert and a member of the global jury.

The World Summit Awards Global Congress gathering WSA winners is a great opportunity for developers of the best solutions from all regions of the world to present their innovations, meet international experts and mentors, take part in training activities and receive awards during the honours ceremony. It is true that this year's WSA Congress was held under unusual conditions, with the rapid development of COVID-19 in Austria and the world. According to the Lithuanian solution developers, this inspired them to think more broadly about their mission and the products they are developing.

“The global quarantine of the education system is not only a major challenge but also an opportunity to change both process and habits. Together with our team, we decided to offer the BitDegree platform completely free to educators - they can now create their own training materials, test the knowledge through tests and assignments, and track student progress. We are also in the process of adapting our comprehensive learning motivation, course delivery, and analytics tools specifically for higher education. We invite higher education representatives to contact us – we will help them to streamline the learning process online and work together to get the most out of BitDegree,” said Danielius Stasiulis, BitDegree CEO.

World Summit Awards is a global initiative aimed at discovering and disseminating the world's best digital innovations that contribute to the practical implementation of the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals. Lithuania's national selection for these global awards organized by the Information Society Development Committee and the Communications Regulatory Authority. A new round of national selection will start in spring 2020.