You might already know that the Möbius Open Call for Manuscripts recently closed for entries. Although the final results are to come, the Möbius Team is thrilled to share with all of you some data on the applications we received. In this short blog post, we’ll give a quick overview of the competition for short original fantasy stories, submitted up until the 15th of January.

The Möbius Team was accepting original and unpublished works (meaning containing no intellectual property belonging to other authors and/or third parties). The manuscripts were meant to be short, with a maximum length of 6000 characters, including spaces. The authors were required to be of age, citizens and/or residents of EU-27 countries, plus associated countries or those in the process of becoming associated with Horizon Europe. Manuscripts could be submitted in English, Italian, and Spanish, and each author could submit a maximum of two manuscripts.

According to the data collected on the Möbius website, we received 87 manuscripts in Spanish, 55 in Italian and 33 in English.

You can see a visual representation of the European nationalities of the applicants (citizens and/or residents of EU-27 countries, plus associated countries or in the process of becoming associated with Horizon Europe), in the map below.

Moreover, as residents in the EU-27 countries were also eligible, we found other nationalities such American (2), Argentine (1), Colombian (1), Ukranian (3), Dominican (1), Russian (3), and Venezuelan (1).

When it comes to age, average age of the applicants was 46 years old, with the maximum age of an applicant being 87 years old, and the youngest being 19. 

About the gender data, 57 of the manuscripts were submitted by women, 6 by non-binary people, 94 by men and 18 preferred not to say.

Unfortunately, we also received 10 manuscripts that we couldn’t accept because they did not fulfilled the eligibility conditions of the Möbius Open Call for manuscripts.

To wrap up, the winning manuscript will become the first Möbius Book, a cross-media experience comprising a 3D audio and virtual reality production and art installation. The Möbius Book will be showcased in several locations in Europe during 2023 and 2024, as part of the dissemination and demonstrations events of the project. The Möbius Book will remain publicly available on the project’s website for at least 5 years after the project finishes in February 2024.

Curious to know who the winners are? In the coming days, we’ll release an announcement. Stay tuned by following our social media accounts, subscribe to our newsletter and check our website.