Applicant criteria
- No specific age required
- Both
Opportunity criteria
Opportunity description
Call for Innovators, Developers, Designers, and Entrepreneurs to Participate in the 2024 Lineage Food Supply Chain Innovation Challenge
Lineage invites students and startups from around the world with forward-thinking ideas to help address the complexities of the food supply chain, explore new perspectives, and propose innovative solutions that can transform how the world is fed.
Teams presenting the best ideas at each regional event will receive a cash prize. Additionally, one overall winner will be selected to participate in a Lineage-organized incubator program to further scale or develop their proposed solution.
Challenge Overview
Food waste post-harvest represents a significant global challenge, impacting food security, quality, and market access, especially in developing and emerging regions. The lack of affordable, scalable solutions exacerbates this issue, leading to the loss of valuable food resources that could nourish millions.
During the Lineage Food Supply Chain Innovation Challenge, participants will showcase their innovative technologies or data solutions aimed at addressing food waste after harvest, considering its multifaceted impact on communities and economies.
Participants are encouraged to focus their solutions on one of the following themes:
Reducing Food Waste: Technologies and strategies for minimizing food waste post-harvest across the supply chain, from farm to market, taking into account factors such as storage, transportation, and distribution.
Innovative Food Preservation Techniques: New methods or devices to maintain food freshness and quality, extend shelf life, and reduce spoilage, particularly in resource-limited environments.
Access to Nutritious Food: Designing solutions to enhance access to nutritious food in underserved areas by addressing challenges like food distribution logistics, affordability, and availability of fresh products.
Data-Driven Insights and Analytics: Utilizing data analytics, Internet of Things (IoT) devices, and other technologies to gather insights on food supply chains, identify waste areas, and optimize resource allocation for maximum efficiency.
Evaluation Criteria
Innovation: Originality and creativity of the idea.
Feasibility: Practical implementation of the idea and likelihood of success.
Impact: Potential market impact and benefits to the industry or community.
Presentation: Clarity, persuasiveness, and professionalism of the presentation.
Team Capability: The team's ability to execute the plan.
Benefits
- Connect Network with industry professionals, mentors, and fellow participants from around the world.
- Learn: Experts in the food and logistics fields will be on-site to provide real-time feedback and guidance to teams to help them develop their proposals.
- Get Funded: The team with the winning entry selected by the judges in each region will receive a cash prize. Each of the regional winners will then enter a final round of global judging, competing for additional prize money and exclusive access to an executive-led incubator program organized by Lineage.
- Create Impact: Make a difference by addressing real-world issues and contributing to a sustainable future.
Eligibility criteria
Open to students and entrepreneurs of all ages, nationalities, backgrounds, regions, and industries. Individuals or teams can participate.
No country restrictions apply; however, participants must be eligible to receive prizes if they win and are responsible for any taxes on prize earnings.
The competition is open to startups and early-stage companies.
All submissions must comply with local business regulations and laws.
Team Formation and Registration
Team size can range from 1 to 5 members.
No changes to team members are allowed after September 30, 2024, except on a case-by-case basis approved by the Lineage Food Supply Chain Innovation Challenge Committee.
Teams must exclusively consist of participants who are not organizers, volunteers, judges, sponsors, or in any other prominent position at the event.
Judges are not eligible to participate in the challenge; however, they may provide advice and support to teams before presentations on the event day.
Participants must submit a detailed business plan, including market feasibility, product or service description, financial projections, and a clear outline of the impact their solution will have on reducing post-harvest food waste.