The results: the 2018 Apolitical Young Thought Leaders

In 2018, Apolitical ran its first ever Young Thought Leaders writing competition.

Entrants chose some fascinating and important topics, and the clarity and persuasiveness of many participants' writing was very impressive. We would like to thank everybody that entered.

Below is a list of the winners and runners up. The quality of the entries was extremely high, and many fantastic pieces just missed out on prizes. We are excited to publish the rest of those shortlisted entries throughout the coming days.

The articles were scored by Apolitical's editorial team across four dimensions. Two dimensions were related to subject choice: topic originality and relevance to our global public sector audience. The other two — clarity and flair — were related to the writing itself.

Prize-winning topics ranged from redesigning job centres by starting with users to the role of public space in helping to combat the epidemic of loneliness. We were particularly pleased to see so many entrants writing about projects, programs or policies that they themselves have been a part of.

Please take a read of the following entries and those shortlisted pieces that are published throughout the week — we would love to know what you think. And, for those eligible, the time is now to think about next year's competition!