Cash Prizes in Sustainable Chemistry Challenge Valued 50,000 Euro from Elsevier

Elsevier foundation believes that chemistry plays a critical role in developing a sustainable future. Chemists have a special responsibility to develop those new products, resources, and processes to make that happen. The Elsevier Foundation-ISC3 Green & Sustainable Chemistry Challenge seeks to stimulate innovative chemistry research that helps the environment and low-resource communities in emerging and developing countries.

The Challange Fields:

The challenge awards three prizes, two are scientific, and one is entrepreneurial. The Scientific Prizes award projects that use green and sustainable chemistry solutions to tackle some of the developing world’s greatest sustainability challenges, whether in water, sanitation or energy. The Entrepreneurial Prize highlights entrepreneurs with promising innovations and evaluates them in terms of market potential, business models, technological innovation and impact.

Eligibility Criteria:

The Challenge is open to individuals and non-profit organizations whose projects use green and sustainable chemistry solutions.

Evaluation Criteria:

Criteria for the Scientific Prizes:

Projects will be reviewed according to the following criteria:

•  The proposal clearly describes the urgency of the problem. Provide a description of the project background and include a description of the broader context and highlight how the project links to the United Nation Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). 
• The project utilizes an innovative green and sustainable chemistry approach. Specifically, the project should: 
  1. Reduces or eliminates the use or generation of one or more hazardous substances or materials.
  2. Provides a more sustainable use of resources (e.g., bio-, minerals, metals but also water, energy), or products, or more sustainable manufacturing/ application of chemical products o Increases longevity, increases reuse or recyclability of chemicals/products e.g. by proper design or manner of application, etc.,
  3. Designs a new business model related to green and sustainable chemistry and circular economy.
  4. Complies with at least two of the 12 principles of green chemistry.
• The project is replicable, scalable, sustainable (make sure to specify why), and sets a benchmark for innovation – new ideas or concepts in development will be given preference over more advanced projects.
• The proposal highlights the novelty of your approach and gives a short literature overview of what has been done before, both by you and others (“background”). •
• The project is applicable and suitable for developing countries. Describe the project’s social impact on local communities, including gender equality either in design or implementation. 
• Include an implementation plan for the project. Please note that if the project has been developed in a high-income country, contextually appropriate knowledge transfer to the lower-income country is needed to be demonstrated, for instance through a developing country implementation or research partner. If the idea presented is already patented it will not be eligible. Patents resulting from the work in case of executing the awarded project will be possible anyway.

Criteria for the Entrepreneurial Spirit Prize:

Innovation/Start-ups will be reviewed according to the following criteria: 

• Background and relation to SDGs:
  1. Is the urgency of the problem described well? How does innovation strive to solve the issue? 
  2. The Innovation/startup background should also include a description of the broader context and highlight the links to the United Nation Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). How does the innovation comply with at least 2 SDGs (most relevant to us are 6,7,9,11,12,13,14 or 15) and, if applicable, to at least 2 principles of Green Chemistry?
  3. How does the innovation/startup relate to green and sustainable chemistry and/or circular economy.
  4. How are resources more sustainably used (e.g., bio-, minerals, metals but also water, energy)?
•  Time to market, Partners: 
  1. What is the stage of development of the startup? How far is it in terms of organization and financial support? What is the status of innovation in terms of realization and market entry? Has the market size and transformation potential been identified?
  2. Why is the approach novel? Is the current state of the art presented and the innovation´s advantages and USP´s are clearly shown.
• Transformative potential:
  1. The innovation should be replicable, scalable, sustainable, and set a benchmark for innovation – more advanced projects will be given preference over new ideas or concepts in development. 
  2. How is the innovation suitable for use in developing countries? Have the project’s social impact on local communities, including gender equality either in design or implementation be considered?
  3. Practical applicability is key – include an implementation plan. Please note that if the project has been developed in a high-income country, contextually appropriate knowledge transfer will need to be demonstrated, for instance through a developing country implementation partner.

Prizes:

The winners will be announced at the 2020 Green & Sustainable Chemistry Conference in Germany. The Challenge is articulated in two tracks:

• Scientific prizes: the winning project will receive a prize of €50,000, with €25,000 for the second-place prize.
• Entrepreneurial prize: an additional €25,000 will be awarded for the “Entrepreneurial Spirit in Sustainable Chemistry Award”.

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