GLOBAL – With up to $1.5million USD up for grabs, the Calling All Innovators competition, first announced in January, is hotting up. And with the June deadline for submissions looming, now is the time to get your submission planned, if you’re not already. The challenge is simple in concept: create an app that has the power to change lives. Read on after the jump to find out more.

Developers can submit apps to four different categories:

• Eco/Being Green – Despite what a certain frog says, it’s not so easy being green. Design an app that will take the pain out of preserving the planet: one that helps individuals reduce their personal carbon footprint or make more environmentally sound purchases.
• Entertainment – We want you to rock our world and change lives using the music, multimedia or gaming features available on the latest Nokia mobile devices.
• Productivity – The true promise of mobile technology is efficiency on the go. Can you think of a way to use mobile technology to streamline personal finances, business operations or utility consumption? We want to hear from you.
• Life Improvement – We know that mobile technology can improve the education, health prospects and agricultural output in developing countries. We want you to show us how a simple app can better the lives of thousands.

The prizes on offer are pretty astounding. Each category has prizes for the top three amounting to $50,000 per category:

Grand Prize: $30,000 USD in cash.

2nd Prize: $15,000 USD in cash.

3rd Prize: $5,000 USD in cash.

There are also a selection of prizes which go across all four categories and can be awarded regardless of whether the app is a category finalist. These include:

Best application for the Nokia N900: $50,000 (USD) in cash.

Best cross-platform application using Qt: $50,000 (USD) in cash.

Best mobile computing application: $50,000 (USD) in cash, plus the winner of this special prize will be included in a multi-million dollar global marketing campaign that will be used to help promote the winning app.

Best locally relevant application with global potential: $15,000 (USD) in cash.

You might think that’d be it in the prize stakes, but you’d be wrong. There’s more on offer in local countries as well, for Calling All Innovators is a global competition, with a selection of localised mini competitions running alongside. Some of the countries taking part will be offering additional local prizes (check out the full list here).

Ideas for Calling All Innovators can be submitted via the Calling All Innovators website up to the end of the Nokia Developer Summit on June 10 2010, with the award ceremony for finalists taking place at Nokia World in September.

So that’s it for prizes then? Erm, no, actually. Running alongside the Calling All Innovators competition is Nokia’s Growth Economy Venture Challenge where a $1million USD venture capital investment is on offer to the creator of an app which has been designed exclusively to help improve the lives of others (think Nokia Life Tools). Be quick for this one though, as the submissions deadline is April 18 2010.

So, what are you waiting for? Visit www.CallingAllInnovators.com now to enter.