Cycle Five Timeline
What is the Nine Dots Prize?
The Nine Dots Prize is a prize for creative thinking that tackles contemporary societal issues. Entrants are asked to respond to a question in 3,000 words, with the winner receiving US$100,000 to write a short book expanding on their ideas.
The aim of the Prize is to promote, encourage and engage innovative thinking to address problems facing the modern world. The name of the Prize references the nine dots puzzle – a lateral thinking puzzle which can only be solved by thinking outside the box.
The Prize was established in 2016 and has chosen four winners so far. Previous questions have considered issues around how politics is influenced by digital technologies, what home is, how the relationships between young and old affect the world, and why the rule of law has become so fragile.
Our fifth Cycle launched in October 2024 with the question 'Is data failing us?'.
The aim of the Prize is to promote, encourage and engage innovative thinking to address problems facing the modern world. The name of the Prize references the nine dots puzzle – a lateral thinking puzzle which can only be solved by thinking outside the box.
The Prize was established in 2016 and has chosen four winners so far. Previous questions have considered issues around how politics is influenced by digital technologies, what home is, how the relationships between young and old affect the world, and why the rule of law has become so fragile.
Our fifth Cycle launched in October 2024 with the question 'Is data failing us?'.
Latest from the Nine Dots Prize
Transcript of Nine Dots Podcast 2024/1 ‘Beginnings’
Jane Tinkler Hello and welcome to this podcast for anyone interested in applying for the Nine Dots Prize or just generally curious about writing non-fiction. I’m Jane Tinkler, Senior Manager for the Prize and we hope that this podcast will help guide and inspire your writing. As Plato said in The Republic “The beginning is […]
Read MoreOut now! Radically Legal: Berlin Constitutes the Future by Joanna Kusiak
We are proud and excited to share that Radically Legal: Berlin Constitutes the Future by the 2022/23 Nine Dots Prize winner, Joanna Kusiak, is now available in bookshops and online, published by Cambridge University Press. A PDF of the book is available for free via Open Access, or you can purchase a physical copy from […]
Read MoreExtracts from Joanna Kusiak’s winning entry
Joanna Kusiak won the fourth Nine Dots Prize with her entry to the question: ‘Why has the rule of law become so fragile?’ Here are three extracts from her 3,000 word entry: I In the morning of the day Gabor Steingart, one of Germany’s top economics journalists, interviews me for his news podcast, I am […]
Read MorePrevious Winners
Joanna Kusiak
Radically Legal: Berlin Constitutes the Future
Cambridge-based researcher and scholar-activist Joanna Kusiak has been announced as the winner of the 2022/23 Nine Dots Prize for her ‘exciting’ and ‘provocative’ response to our fourth questionView profile
Trish Lorenz
Soro Soke: The Young Disruptors of an African Megacity
Berlin-based journalist Trish Lorenz has been announced as the winner of the 2020/2021 Nine Dots Prize for her ‘compelling and well-evidenced’ response.View profile
Annie Zaidi
Bread, Cement, Cactus: A Memoir of Belonging and Dislocation
Annie Zaidi, a freelance writer whose work includes reportage, essays, short stories, poetry and plays, has been announced as the winner of the Nine Dots Prize 2018/19.View profile
James Williams
Stand Out of Our Light: Freedom and Resistance in the Attention Economy
35-year-old James Williams, a doctoral candidate researching design ethics at Oxford University, has been announced as the inaugural winner of the US$100,000 Nine Dots Prize. View profile
