Last week, The Innovation Village held an info session aimed at creating awareness about the Zayed Sustainability Prize. The event was also to act as an opportunity to drum up applications for the prize.
Established in 2008, the Zayed Sustainability Prize is an award that celebrates innovations across several sectors. The prize participation criteria for all categories are Innovation, Impact, and Inspiration.
Some of the well-known names in Africa that have participated and reached the finals are M-Kopa, Solar Sister, and Bboxx, who are all energy companies. However, the prize has expanded to now include other categories in a bid to align with the UN Sustainable Development Goals.
"This year, the Prize broadened its mandate to align itself with the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals and the UAE’s developing national agenda," read the press statement.
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Pointing out that the award now "recognizes innovations in the sustainability categories of Health, Food, Energy, Water and Global High Schools."
Each winner for the five categories stands to walk away with US $600,000. Apart from those in the Global High Schools category. The category is broken down into 6 world regions and the winner of each of them walks away with US $100,000.
The world regions are The Americas, Europe & Central Asia, Sub-Saharan Africa, East Asia & Pacific, South Asia and MENA.
"Each of the five categories has a winning prize fund of US$600,000, which is primarily awarded so that organisations can further invest and develop their sustainability solution. The Global High Schools category is split into six winners, one per world region, with each of the six winners eligible for up to US$100,000 in project funding."
Applications to the prize close on 9th August 2018. After which, "all [the] submissions [will] go through [a] three-tiered evaluation process" by the prize's jury.
The awards ceremony will take place next year in January.
"The Zayed Sustainability Prize awards ceremony takes place during the Abu Dhabi Sustainability Week. The next award ceremony will be held on 14th January 2019."
The Zayed Sustainability Prize is a "tribute to the legacy of the late founding father of the UAE, Sheikh Zayed bin Sultan Al Nahyan – a visionary champion of environmental stewardship and global sustainability."
The prize is funded by the Abu Dhabi Government and managed by Masdar, a renewable energy company. To find out more about the award, click here.