Climate Resiliency Challenge: A Call for Bold, Innovative Solutions

Deadline: 10-Jul-23

Applications are now open for the Climate Resiliency Challenge, an invitation for organizations and teams across the globe to develop solutions that will empower frontline communities to be ready and resilient against disasters caused by climate change – in particular, wildfires, floods, and extreme weather.

This challenge is focused on empowering frontline communities to prevent, prepare for and recover from climate-related disasters. While they are open to all compelling climate-related disaster solutions, they are particularly focused on wildfires, floods, and extreme weather events.

Themes to Consider

This Challenge is built around three themes that inspire our thinking about where innovation can most benefit frontline communities. Themes are not meant to be exclusionary of each other, and solution ideas can fit under any and all of the themes.

• Prevention: Eliminating the risk of climate-related disasters and/or reducing the likelihood or severity of its impacts.
  • Starter Questions:
    • How might we shape resilient landscapes and build resilient infrastructure that lessen the impact of climate-disasters on frontline communities?
    • How might we improve monitoring, surveillance and detection to improve disaster warnings and enable earlier signs to act sooner in the face of possible catastrophe?
    • Solution Inspiration: Prevention could include (but is not limited to) solutions such as:
      • New approaches to physically altering landscapes to be stronger against disasters and/or less prone to disasters
      • New resistant materials for infrastructures to suffer less/no damage from disasters
      • Improved detection technologies to prevent disasters before their severity escalates
• Preparedness: Taking actions to prepare communities and individuals for climate-related disasters.
  • Starter Questions:
    • How might they improve coordination, communication and education efforts to better prepare frontline communities for climate-related disasters?
    • How might they support better preparedness for those who work in essential industries that play a role in community resilience (such as agriculture, energy, forestry management, water management, etc.)?
    • Solution Inspiration: Preparedness could include (but is not limited to) solutions such as:
      • Strategies for better community response to disasters
      • Evacuation strategies, communication and locations
      • Universally accessible mobility solutions for before, during and after disasters
      • Physical safety and health precautions
      • Tools and technologies that can enhance any preparedness measures
• Recovery: Taking immediate and long-term actions to recover from the impacts of disasters.
  • Starter Questions:
    • How might they improve the delivery of post-disaster management and recovery assistance?
    • What might be needed to enable a frontline-community-led workforce in rebuilding and recovery?
    • Where necessary, how can they create a human-centered and supportive relocation process?
    • How might they get displaced individuals into stable housing sooner?
    • Solution Inspiration: Recovery could include (but is not limited to) solutions such as:
      • Efficient and human-centered methods of rebuilding communities and infrastructures;
      • Reviving businesses and the economy of frontline communities post-disasters;
      • Generating workforce opportunities for frontline communities to contribute to disaster relief and recovery.
      • Effective, community-involved clean-up after disasters (within the boundaries of environmental laws)

Funding Information

• Multiple awards will be given in each category, making up to a total of $1 million. Winners will be announced on or around August 1, 2023. They are excited to support innovators across multiple stages of development:
  • Emerging Innovator Award: Early-stage concepts: Up to $50K USD
  • Mid-stage Innovator Award: Growth-stage concepts: Up to $100K USD
  • Advanced Solutions Award: Scaling-stage concepts: Up to $200K USD
• Moreover, solutions submitted will receive:
  • Media Coverage and Visibility: Throughout the Challenge, participants will be promoted through a variety of media and channels, including an extensive partner media, social media, website, and email campaign.
  • Exposure to Networks: All submissions and participants will be visible to experts, investors, and funders across a wide range of industries, academia, policy organizations, and sponsor partners.
  • Connections to Like-minded Partners: All submissions and participants will benefit from engaging with the open innovation community and getting acquainted with like-minded individuals who can become future collaborators and/or partners in each others’ ideas.

Eligibility Criteria

• They are looking for innovative thinkers – experts, community members, and designers – from all industries and sectors who are passionate about creating climate-resilient communities.
• They especially invite participation from communities on the frontlines of climate change, and organizations or entities that work directly with those communities. They particularly encourage people of color, people who identify as women or non-binary, Native individuals, and members of the LGBTQ+ community to apply.
• This is a purposefully open invitation. They’re casting the net wide to capture ideas at every stage, of any scale, from around the world. For this reason, Google Translate is built into the platform, so users can select their preferred language to view the text, including the submission form. That said, all answers on the submission form must be provided in English.
• This Challenge is open to individuals, teams of individuals, and legal entities. While the primary focus for solutions is on North America, they will accept scalable and transferable solutions from around the world. The primary participant submitting the proposal must be at least 18 years old.
• The Program is open to individuals and legally registered and organized entities, including organizations, universities, governments, NGOs, cooperatives, partnerships and companies that agree to be, and can be legally bound by these Challenge Terms and Conditions (hereinafter “Entrant(s)” or “you/your”).
• Any organization, university, government, NGO, cooperative, partnership, or company, whose laws, bylaws, guidelines, policies, or regulations do not allow for entry in the Program consistent with the Challenge Terms and Conditions, are not eligible for entry. Employees, officers, directors, and agents of Program Entities, any additional funding entities, and judges are likewise ineligible for entry.
• Further, the Program expressly excludes Entrants from U.S. embargo and sanctioned countries/regions, and any country, and entities or persons, appearing on the list provided by the United States Treasury Department, Office of Foreign Asset Control (“OFAC”), whether, currently listed, or subsequently listed at any time during the Program’s duration.
• Program Entities reserve the right in their full discretion to verify the eligibility of any Entrant and its compliance in full with these Challenge Terms and Conditions. At all times, the decision of any of the Program Entities as to eligibility shall be final and binding.
• While diverse groups may voluntarily decide to collaborate on and submit an entry, entries must be made in the name of a single Entrant (which may include any organization, university, government, NGO, cooperative, partnership or company). Each individual member of an Entrant organization must meet any and all eligibility requirements.
• Each Entrant must designate one contact person, who is fluent in English and legally authorized to bind the Entrant in connection with, and for purposes of, any aspect of this Program. This individual at the time of entry must be over the age of majority in the relevant jurisdiction(s) in which the Entrant is organized and legally resides, and where the individual legally 4 resides. All communications with the Program Entities must be through the contact person of the Entrant. During the duration of the Program, each Entrant is solely responsible for maintaining the accuracy of all contact information for the Entrant and the authorized individual it designates, and any other contact information provided to or for the Program.
• Program Entities will not be responsible for communications sent to out-ofdate or inaccurate contact information. Further, Program Entities will not be responsible for, and have no role in determining, how work is accomplished for making a submission to the Program among those that have decided to collaborate on an entry or within the Entrant. The Program Entities will only communicate with the Entrant through its designated contact person.
• Any levies, taxes and fees associated with submissions to and participation in the Program are the sole responsibility of the Entrant. Further, the Entrant is responsible for providing, as applicable, a United States taxpayer identification number and any other tax documentation requested before eligibility may be determined. If the laws of any jurisdiction other than the United States govern the Entrant, the Entrant agrees that it is solely responsible for any reporting obligations for, and for the payment of, any levies, taxes and fees to any governmental authorities or jurisdiction arising from or in connection with the Program. Any such Entrant shall provide any supporting documentation requested to the Program Entities confirming proof of legal status and taxation.
• Each Entrant bears sole responsibility for confirming that it can participate fully in the Program under the laws of the jurisdiction(s) under which the entrant is organized and resides. Any entry received from an entrant organized or residing in a country where the Program is not legal in all regards shall be ineligible to enter the Challenge.
• Further, before Entrants are selected as Prize winners, Program Entities may request the Entrant to execute, through the Entrant’s authorized individual, a winner’s affidavit verifying identity, eligibility and acceptance of rules, a liability release and/or publicity release, and a grant of rights consistent with the provisions of these rules, and any other documents 5 needed to satisfy these Challenge Terms and Conditions (collectively, the “Documents”). The Documents must be completed and submitted by the deadline provided by the Program Entities in the notification or the Prize may be forfeited and an alternate winner chosen, time and circumstances permitted. The Program Entities reserve the right in all cases to withhold the Prize award until the potential winner’s identity and eligibility are established.

Ineligible

• A note on what they are NOT looking for:
  • Solutions that specifically support emergency response during a disaster (e.g., firefighting during a wildfire)
  • Solutions that primarily target social and/or emotional impacts of climate disasters on communities (e.g., long-term mental health support)
  • Solutions that primarily target mitigating climate-change (e.g., reducing greenhouse gasses or carbon footprint)
  • Singular infrastructure and/or construction projects that are not scalable (e.g., building a dam, improving a road, etc.)

For more information, visit Eurocluster INGENIOUS.