Zayed Sustainability Prize is awarding pioneering innovators and individuals with original ideas aimed to recognize and support solutions and technologies to change the world for the better.

The Prize is funded by the Abu Dhabi Government as a way to honor and continue the sustainability legacy of the late founding father of the United Arab Emirates, Sheikh Zayed bin Sultan Al Nahyan. Masdar, Abu Dhabi’s renewable energy company, manages the Zayed Sustainability Prize.

categories: 

• Health          US $1,000,000
• Food              US $1,000,000
  Energy          US $1,000,000
  Water                                       US $1,000,000
  Climate Action                   US $1,000,000
  Global High Schools      US $900,000

 

Deadline: 23 June 2024 5:00 PM EST.

Similar Awards: 

• 2021 IEEE Entrepreneurship Impact Award (USD 2,000 prize+ a plague)
• WISE Prize for Education 2021 for Outstanding Contributions in Education Worldwide ($500K Prize)
• Visa Everywhere Initiative “2021 Global Startup Competition” ($100k prizes)
• Jacobs Foundation Research Prize 2021 for Outstanding Scientific Contributions (1Million Swiss Francs)
• Internet of Things and Wearable Technology Competition for Tech Startups ($500K prizes)

Eligibilities:

• Should be a small or medium-sized enterprise, a social enterprise, a non-governmental organization (NGO), a non-profit organization (NPO) (with yearly revenues of less than 50 million US dollars).
• Demonstrate innovative, impactful and inspirational solutions
• A clear vision and long-term plan to extend your solution, increase the impact and inspire others
• For the Global High Schools category: Schools need to submit proposals for funding consideration to implement sustainability measures in their schools.

 

Award categories and prizes:

 

• Climate action: 1000,000 US dollars
• Health: 1000,000 US dollars
  • sustainable solution: include but not limited to :
    • Ensuring access to essential and affordable healthcare
    • Ensuring access to maternal and new-bornhealthcare
    •  Ending epidemics (AIDS, Malaria, Tuberculosis etc.)
    •  Preventing and treating water-borne, communicable and non-communicablediseases
    •  Reducing illness from pollution, hazardous chemicals and contamination
  • Requirements: Applicants should demonstrate how they are empowering the people by giving them access to affordable healthcare or other related services. Have a clear vision and long-term plan to deploy your solution and scale up the impact. T
  • To be eligible for this category, organizations must be a small or medium-sized enterprise (SME) or a non-profit organisation (NPO)
• Food: 1000,000 US dollars
  • Sustainable solution to :
  • Decreasing hunger and malnutrition
    • Increasing agricultural or other food processing productivity
    • Ensuring sustainability of food systems
    • Enhancing sustainable food production
  • Requirements: Applicants should demonstrate how they are empowering the people by giving them access to affordable food or related service. Have a clear vision and long-term plan to deploy your solution and scale up the impact.

 

• Energy: 1000,000 US dollars;
  • Solutions for :
  • Ensuring access to affordable and reliable clean energy
    • Increasing production of clean energy
    • Improving energy efficiency and energy infrastructure
    • Implementing clean energy technology innovation
  • Requirements: Applicants should demonstrate innovative, efficient and impactful, and inspirational solutions for Energy. Furthermore, the applicant organization should have a clear vision and long-term plan to deploy your solution and scale up the impact.

 

• Water: 1000,000 US dollars
  • Requirement: applicants empower people to have access to affordable and safe drinking water. or providing services such as sanitation, water use efficiency, or improving water quality
  • solutions:
  • Ensuring access to safe and affordable drinking water
  • Ensuring access to sanitation and hygiene
  •  Increasing water use efficiency

 

• Global High Schools: 150,000 US dollars (1 award for each of the regions):

• • The Americas
  • Europe & Central Asia
  • Sub-Saharan Africa
  • East Asia & Pacific
  • South Asia
  • MENA (the Middle East and North Africa)

• • Requirement: All high schools with students between the ages of 11-19 proposing innovative, impact-full, and inspirational projects having a tangible outcome in sustainable health, food, and energy areas can apply. The projects should have a great educational impact, providing quality education and helping the students develop their skills and achieve their goals.

• Climate Action:
  • Solutions: The solution may be an approach, service and/or product that can be directly attributed to a quantifiable
    positive impact pertaining to the areas mentioned below:
    • Climate Adaptation and Resilience Building
    • Sustainable Land Use and Forest Conservation
    • Nature-based solutions for conserving/restoring ecosystems and natural resources or carbon removal
    • Carbon Capture, Usage, and Storage

Application process:

Interested applicants can apply using the online submissions portal which is available on the Zayed Sustainability Prize website. In order to apply, you are required to register as a candidate by entering a Username and Password. You can use your account to log in, fill out the application form, save and update the information at any time.

Applicants can apply to one of the categories mentioned above . All finalists will be invited to award ceremony on paid (accommodation and flight ticket) trip.

 

Apply now

 

Please read the award categories and details here before you apply.

Evaluation Criteria for all categories:

• Innovation (%40)
• Impact (%30)
• Inspiration (40)

 

The winners will be announced at the Zayed Sustainability Prize Awards Ceremony, which takes place in Abu Dhabi during the Abu Dhabi Sustainability Week in January 2025.

Some of Frequently asked quesions

How are the winners chosen?

First stage: Due diligence is conducted on all submissions to ensure that they meet the evaluation criteria of the Zayed Sustainability Prize.
Second stage: The Selection Committee reviews every entry, and the final entries are sent to the Jury for final evaluation.
Third stage: The Jury meets in person to deliberate on the finalists and select the winner in each category. Final decisions are unanimous. The winners of the Zayed Sustainability Prize will be announced at the annual Awards Ceremony.

Are there any associated fees that need to be paid as part of the submission’sentry?

There are no fees to be paid as part of the submissions process.

May I apply in multiple categories?

Each applicant or entity may enter in one category of the Prize only.

Which language can I submit my application?

The Prize accepts entries in English, Arabic, French, Spanish, Portuguese, Russian and Chinese (Mandarin).

 

Do I have to submit my entry in one sitting or am I able to come back to my application, at a later date, to complete it?

The online portal allows entrants to save the progress of their submission details and return to add or complete the entry at a later time. Applicants must remember to save their progress and can update and change the content as many times as needed, up until confident it is ready forsubmission. Simply log in using the credentials you used to set up your account. Please note that once the submission has been officially submitted, no further additions and/or changes will be permitted.

 

Official Link

You can find other Opportunities offering prizes HERE