Urgh it should say up to 3K Eur - thanks for the heads up, fixed it.
I did a bit of research about reasonable rates for professional fiction writers. It is important to bear in mind that the writers are going to have to spend quite a bit of time familiarising themselves with the body of writing and discussions we have had around building witness. We dont know about how people will approach the writing- some will be putting in significant research, while others not. I would much rather we put in a budget that ensures that we are not excluding thoroughly researched work, high profile writers etc. As for the length: Even a super short speculative futures piece like this one is minimum 1.5 words and then you have almost no character development at all.
Regarding contributions in the actual competition. I think reading 2-3 pages of text is not much of an ask.
We would much rather have a few quality contributions that make a meaningful contribution towards - helping us surface and think of creative responses to some of the deeper questions/ building the world.