Enter The Earthshot Prize for a chance at £1,000,000

Do you have a research project that could make a positive impact on our planet? There will be five £1,000,000 Earthshot Prizes given in 2023 to projects that highlight how we can bring about change, and inspire collective action.

Te Herenga Waka—Victoria University of Wellington is proud to be one of three official nominators in Aotearoa New Zealand for The Earthshot Prize, which aims to find and grow the solutions that will repair our planet this decade.

The Earthshot prizes are awarded by The Royal Foundation of the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge.

Every year until 2030, The Earthshot Prize Council will award £1 million each to five breakthrough solutions. We are now accepting public proposals for projects to put forward in these five awarded categories:

  • Protect and restore nature
  • clean our air
  • revive our oceans
  • build a waste-free world
  • fix our climate.

The prizes may be awarded to individuals, teams or collaborations in any field—anyone whose evidence-based solutions make a substantial contribution to achieving the aims of the Earthshot Prize.

There are lots of innovative solutions being developed at the University and lots more happening through our wider community. If you know of a project that is worthy of nomination let us know by completing this application by 27 November 2022.

Submit a project

Our review panel will have the tough job of selecting which applications best respond to The Earthshot Prize’s criteria. We will assess applications across five criteria:

  • Relevance—How well does the solution align to The Earthshot categories and priority areas and does it use any of the cross-cutting enablers?
  • Impact—Will the solution make a significant global impact? Does it also have a positive human impact?
  • Maturity—How developed is the solution? Is it proven and at a stage where The Earthshot Prize will provide the boost needed to scale the solution?
  • Organisation—Does the solution have a solid organisational structure whereby we can trust that if they won The Earthshot prize it would be invested well?
  • Overall—Does the solution have wow factor? Is it innovative and inspiring?

Previous winners and finalists provide a sense of the type and range of solutions that The Earthshot Prize Council is looking for.

The best three or four solutions will be selected by 9 December 2022, and the Sustainability group will help them to hone their official nominations to try and make them stand out against the other nominations for each category. Our nomination process will be followed with a press release celebrating the projects we put forward, to help raise their profile and build awareness of The Earthshot Prize.

Find out more about the prize on the Sustainability website.