About the Earthshot Prize
Launched in 2020, The Earthshot Prize is an ambitious global prize and platform for impact, designed to discover, celebrate and scale the best solutions to help repair our planet.
The prize aims to find and support projects that can be scaled up to make a significant positive impact by 2030.
Each year, five winners (one for each Earthshot) receive £1 million each to develop and scale their solutions. In addition, all 15 finalists enter The Earthshot Fellowship programme, which provides a year of support to accelerate their ideas and unlock financial, networking and partnership opportunities.
Earthshot is looking for organisations who offer innovative and impactful solutions to the world’s greatest environmental challenges, focusing on five key areas:
- Protecting and Restoring Nature
- Cleaning Our Air
- Reviving Our Oceans
- Building a Waste-Free World
- Fixing Our Climate
Who can apply?
This year Innovate UK is accepting expressions of interest from organisations operating within the UK that believe they meet the Earthshot criteria. Our panel of industry experts will evaluate each organisation, and the most promising solutions will then be supported through the nomination process by Innovate UK for the Earthshot prize.
Eligible organisations include:
- individuals or teams
- for-profit businesses and start-ups
- not-for-profit and grassroots organisations
- local or national governments
- joint partnerships or multi-organisation collaborations
Based on previous applications, The Earthshot Prize favours organisations that have many of the following characteristics:
- are able to provide detailed information for a thorough assessment
- have a team or organisation that is ready to scale and replicate the solution
- have gained traction through funding and partnerships
- are led and/or informed by indigenous and local communities, where relevant
Eligible projects
Eligible projects should:
- be beyond the concept stage, with demonstrated environmental impact to date
- have solutions that are technologically feasible
- offer innovative solutions to one or more of the five Earthshots: Protecting and Restoring Nature, Cleaning Our Air, Reviving Our Oceans, Building a Waste-Free World, and Fixing Our Climate
Scope
Solutions should demonstrate strong potential to:
- deliver large-scale or global positive environmental and/or social impact against at least one of the Earthshots
- scale or replicate rapidly
- be disruptive in their sector and offer transformative change
- play a unique role in their sector
- promote shared economic opportunity
- enable policy change
Expressions of interest will be accepted until 9 September at 00:00. Applications submitted after this date will not be considered.
Innovate UK's application and funding process
If you need more information about how to apply, please read our funding support pages. For additional support, reach out to our team of innovation experts who are ready to help you navigate the application process and maximise your chances of success.
For more information
Accessibility and Inclusion
Innovate UK welcome and encourage applications from people of all backgrounds and are committed to making our application process accessible to everyone. This includes making reasonable adjustments, for people who have a disability or a long-term condition and face barriers applying to us.