The aim of this competition is to track down the most innovative solutions to the problems caused by climate change and help them attract the funding they need to make a real impact. We have therefore kept the entry criteria as broad as possible.

It is important that you can demonstrate in your application how your idea will meet these criteria.

• How is your entry innovative? - This could be the way in which you are developing or delivering the product or service rather than the product itself.
• How does your idea contribute to tackling climate change? - This could be by reducing emissions or developing resilience to climate change impacts.
• How have you demonstrated that your idea is feasible? - We are looking for products or services that have been piloted, prototyped, and attracted seed financing or gained recognition locally.
• How would investment help you to develop your product/service to reach a wider audience or have a bigger impact? – Innovations which already have major financial support or have been developed by a large company will not be considered.
• What is the cost of scaling up your idea? We will ask you to provide basic costing for taking your idea to the next stage.

The competition is open to the following entrants:

• Small and medium sized enterprises
• Academic institutions and think tanks
• Non-governmental organisations (NGOs)
• Individual entrepreneurs.

Why should I apply?Winning this competition will give your project $75,000 prize money to get it off the ground and running. You will also have been voted the most exciting innovation to tackle climate change by the readers of the Financial Times.

But all five projects which make the shortlist will get considerable exposure to global business leaders through coverage in the FT. We hope this will help all the shortlisted projects to find the support they need to scale up and maximise their ability to tackle climate change.

Application Process

Terms and Conditions - click here

Application Form

To enter, please fill in and submit the form below. If you prefer to enter via email, a pdf of this application form can be downloaded here.

NB: This form cannot be saved before submission, so you are advised to prepare your entry and save it elsewhere before you fill in this form.

The deadline for application is 30th January 2009.

You should provide as much information as necessary to enable us to assess your entry but should not disclose any information which you wish to be treated as confidential. We also recommend that you do not include details regarding any application or process which may be patentable without first taking independent legal advice, otherwise you may invalidate any patent application you wish to make or that is pending.

Fields marked with an asterisk (*) are mandatory