Funding

What are the alternative ways of funding climate innovations?

Bronagh Loughlin — Fri, 08 Mar 2024 09:26:51 +0000

What are the alternative ways of funding climate innovations?

Tags

Topic

Climate technologies and purpose-driven enterprises can help us to rapidly curb greenhouse gas emissions to achieve net zero by 2050.

However, to scale and deliver these solutions, climate tech companies and purpose-driven enterprises need to be able to access funding opportunities.

One of the biggest hurdles for impact entrepreneurs is securing adequate funding for their initiatives.

They may face challenges with having to pay higher upfront costs but also many investors can still be unfamiliar with or sceptical of the potential and impact of sustainable businesses.

With this in mind, many impact entrepreneurs find they must develop innovative business models, demonstrate their value proposition, and look for alternative sources of finance such as impact investing, green bonds, or crowdfunding.

They may also lack knowledge concerning climate finance, and this lack of education can act as a significant barrier.

It was for these reasons that Esme Verity, a Fundraising and Alternative Funding Expert, set up Considered Capital, a hub of empowerment and education.

Having worked with thousands of founders to connect them with the right sources of funding and support, Esme found early on that when founders are not shown all funding options, they hit a brick wall with their business.

Esme says: “I’ve personally coached over 100 purpose-led founders over the past 12 months to raise funding, and one of the biggest challenges I see is that most founders do not understand what type of funding is best for their business.

Esme Verity, Founder of Considered Capital

The funding landscape can be very difficult to navigate; it’s complex, time-consuming, and vast.

Part of our work at Considered Capital focuses on this issue, recognising that accessing funding is challenging and purpose-led founders need tailored support.”

She adds: “I built Considered Capital to support founders in feeling more confident and thinking outside the box when going after what they need to build a successful business.

Raising money can feel like a long, complicated slog. However, with education, and a community of brilliant minds and supportive energy, founders feel like they are in this together and reinforce one another’s confidence.”

So far, Considered Capital has empowered thousands of founders to think beyond VC-style funding and consider other funding routes.

They are determined to challenge the notion that venture capital is the only way to fund your business and to find a funding fit that aligns with your values.

Esme explains: “Our mission is to open up alternative funding and the world of funding options available for startups, founders, and socially-led businesses.

We’re educating people across the globe on all of the alternative routes to funding businesses through our free events, workshops, and our flagship programme, the Alternative Funding School.”

The Alt Funding School aims to support purpose-led founders to get funded, helping entrepreneurs explore the full range of funding options, which allows them to select a route to funding and build a fundraising strategy that best aligns with their business and values.

According to the World Economic Forum’s Global Risk Report 2023, the leading risk facing the world over the next decade is failing to mitigate the environmental crisis.

Climate technologies and purpose-driven enterprises could play a massive role in helping us achieve global climate goals.

However, without investment and funding opportunities, these trailblazing initiatives and solutions cannot take their wings and fly.

Climate incubators and accelerators have an important and multidimensional role to play in supporting new low-emission and climate-resilient technologies to be developed, embraced, and utilised by society.

Beyond helping entrepreneurs access funding, accelerators can provide an environment to test innovations besides getting quality advice and guidance. Image: Canva

One of the most well-known global programme for start-ups to catalyse, innovate, and scale the potential for their climate solutions is the ClimAccelerator from Climate-KIC .

This accelerator has been running for the past 10 years and is being scaled to break new groups in areas such as carbon reduction, resilience and adaptation, and more.

Ireland is one of the countries that offers entrepreneurs more options to choose from to embrace climate innovation.

The 2050 Accelerator powered by Dogpatch Labs and supported by the Department of the Environment, Climate and Communications is helping to make Ireland the leading platform for sustainability innovation.

The Green for Business program is run by the Local Enterprise Offices (LEO) in Ireland and offers practical mentoring and other support for SMEs to integrate sustainability into their businesses.

Accelerate Green is an executive accelerator designed to help entrepreneurs scale their purpose-driven businesses, supported by Bord na Móna in conjunction with Resolve Partners.

Recently, Trinity College Dublin launched a brand new accelerator programme for SMEs focusing on the built environment. This six-month virtual programme enables businesses to scale up innovations that can decarbonise the sector.

The number of green accelerators and supports is rising across Europe and beyond; however, more accessible funding is needed to ensure we can achieve a net-zero economy by 2050.

Background style

Light

Sponsored?

March 2024

Collaborative content with

Profit with Purpose Magazine

4 ways to fund your green business idea

Collaborative Content Studio — Tue, 07 Sep 2021 15:34:47 +0000

4 ways to fund your green business idea

Tags

Topic

How to unlock funding opportunties to turn a green business idea into a reality?

An increasing number of entrepreneurs feel more empowered to launch their green businesses.

In essence, a “green” company strives to positively impact the environment and community besides generating profit.

The strategies and practices developed by green businesses are committed to lowering their overall environmental impact and building a more sustainable future.

Aside from putting forward their sustainable beliefs and advocacies, green business owners are also tapping into a rapidly growing market.

In fact, Markets and Markets note that the environmental technology market is expected to reach £502.94 billion by 2029, thanks to a compound annual growth rate of 4.6%.

Besides, the Convention on Biological Diversity’s Global Biodiversity Outlook 5 notes that businesses that recognise the importance of nature and protect it tend to perform better on the market.

If green businesses are indeed the future and you have an idea that fits here, you would still need to know how to find funding for it. Here, we list four ways you can raise capital for your green business.

Take out a small business loan ⁠

The first option that most startups or early-stage businesses go for is to take out a small business loan.

For one, small business loans have lower interest rates and more flexible terms than credit cards and other loans.

What’s more, you can take out a small business loan from a variety of financial institutions ⁠— from respected national banks to friendly credit unions.

And many of these institutions offer loans to encourage small businesses.

For example, HSBC launched a green loan in excess of £300,000 for companies that put sustainability first. To be eligible, they need to provide green credentials.

Small business loans are probably the easiest and fastest way you can access funding.

Small business loans could help green businesses. Image: Unsplash

Look for investors

If you’re confident with your green business idea and it has the potential to scale, you should look for investors who can provide you with the necessary capital.

The great thing about being funded by investors is that there are many ways people can support your business idea.

For one, you can start a crowdfunding campaign where you bring awareness to your business idea and potentially gain numerous investors to pitch for your capital.

You can also look for angel investors to fund your business idea as these individuals have a strong interest in innovative and transformative businesses.

With a great pitch and robust business model, you will have a great chance of attracting suitable investors.

Bootstrapping through investment opportunities

If you don't have a good credit history, it can be challenging to get loans from banks or funding from investors, especially if you are a new business.

If a financial institution or investor has turned you down, you can choose to finance your green business by looking for investment opportunities with high returns.

For one, you can earn business capital by doing forex.

Looking for investment opportunities with high returns is one option to kick-start a green business. Image: Unsplash

Small Biz Club highlights how forex trading can help you save a nest egg to fund your business, as long as you take the time to learn the ins and outs of this investment opportunity.

Thankfully, getting started with forex is easy since reliable trading platforms are available that will ease you into investing.

FXCM’s MetaTrader 4 can be easily downloaded and allows users to use a demo account to gain confidence before making any actual money trades.

Forex is a good way to create passive income that you can funnel into your green business.

Another investment opportunity that can provide quick and high returns are short-term corporate bonds.

Simply put, these are bonds issued by major corporations and pay interest at regular intervals every year.

In addition, corporate bonds are incredibly liquid.

They can be sold at any point before their maturity date ⁠— making them the perfect high-return investments for those who want to bootstrap their business.

Open a high-yield savings account

If you don’t want to go through impressing investors and are wary of taking out loans, you can save up your green business’s capital in a high-yield savings account.

The interest you earn in a high yield savings account can be as much as 10 times the interest you earn with a traditional savings account.

This makes high-yield savings account the perfect place to store your money when saving up for business capital.

What’s more, the arrival of internet-only banks has raised the competition on savings rates, so you now have more choices when saving up capital for your green business.

The only downside is that you will have to already have a large sum of initial funds for this to work.

Looking into trends and markets, there is no doubt that green businesses will grow stronger and gain more ground.

Finding the right funding is critical for entrepreneurs to start and scale their sustainable business ideas.

Headline image: Unsplash

Collaborative Content - This content is part of a featured collaboration.

Background style

Light

Sponsored?

September 2021

Open calls for proposals on Gender Equality research with cash grants

Business Spirit News reporting — Mon, 09 Aug 2021 11:19:51 +0000

Open calls for proposals on Gender Equality research with cash grants

Tags

Topic

Citizen Social Science projects on Gender Equality are invited to submit applications to receive up to €20,000 grant and other supports.

Civil society initiatives can apply for a grant of up to €20,000 to conduct Citizen Social Science research on the topic of Gender Equality as part of the Co-designing Citizen Social Science for Collective Action (CoAct) research project.

Three open calls for proposals are available for non-profit organisations registered in the EU until September 30th 2021, with specific topics and regional focus.

“The CoAct Open Calls on Gender Equality are a way for us to both share our findings with the civic sector and learn from their feedback, ensuring that our research stays closely connected and responsive to the needs of civic actors," said Cédric Lombion, Data and Innovation Lead at Open Knowledge Foundation, a member organisation of the CoAct consortium.

"Gender Equality is an ongoing major societal issue that constantly affects our daily life."

Cédric Lombion, Data and Innovation Lead at Open Knowledge Foundation

The first call is for projects addressing initiatives on “Sustainable cities and communities” in the Berlin-Brandenburg region in Germany that aim for making cities and villages inclusive, safe, resilient and sustainable for all their inhabitants.

The second call is focusing on “Decent work and economic growth”.

It is open for organisations from Eastern Europe, and projects from Bulgaria, Croatia, Czech Republic, Estonia, Hungary, Latvia, Lithuania, Poland, Romania, Slovakia, Slovenia are invited to apply for support.

The third call is open to international civic organisations operating within the European Union working on topics related to “Opportunities and risks of digitalisation”.

Proposals under this call should address issues relevant to gender inequalities in online spaces, such as gender dynamics of online platforms and exposure to online harassment.

Applications from a broad range of backgrounds are welcome, including feminist, LGTBQ+, none-binary and critical masculinity perspectives that tackle gender inequalities in their various manifestations.

Besides the maximum of €20,000 cash grant, selected projects will benefit from other supports provided by CoAct, like research mentoring program, peer networking and access to tools and resources.

CoAct is a research project exploring Citizen Social Science and started in January 2020, funded by the EU Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme.

CoAct is a Horizon 2020 research project exploring Citizen Social Science

This project seeks to move beyond its own co-research activities and invite other actors to benefit from the project and its support mechanisms by connecting with experts at the grassroots level while exploring the opportunities and challenges of citizen-led research.

A transdisciplinary consortium of nine research institutions and civil society organisations from Barcelona, Wien, London, Buenos Aires, Berlin, and Potsdam is collaborating to achieve the project's objectives.

According to Cédric Lombion consortium partner, the CoAct project aims to contribute to the field of Citizen Social Science by implementing research programmes dealing with various social issues, from youth unemployment to mental health to environmental justice.

“We believe that Citizen Social Science is not just a research field: it is also a set of strategies and practices developed within activist communities and civic organisations to support citizen mobilisation and community building projects,”

Lombion adds.

Citizen Social Science combines collaboration between citizen groups and academic researchers to address pressing social issues from the bottom up, finding solutions embedded in their social contexts, building on robust research methods.

Headline image: Adam Wingler from Unsplash

Background style

Light

Sponsored?

August 2021

€800,000 Social Enterprise Start-up Fund is open for innovative projects in Ireland

Business Spirit News reporting — Mon, 19 Jul 2021 15:55:27 +0000

€800,000 Social Enterprise Start-up Fund is open for innovative projects in Ireland

Tags

social enterprise

Social Innovation

Social Entrepreneurship

Topic

A new support package with grants and training is available for early-stage social enterprises with a clear ambition to address a critical social issue in Ireland.

Minister for Rural and Community Development in Ireland, Heather Humphreys, TD, announced the launch of the €800,000 Social Enterprise Start-up Fund on July 15th 2021.

The purpose of this specific support package is to offer cash and training programmes for social enterprises to realise their potential, expand their businesses and create jobs.

Minister Humphreys said at the launch that the Fund would have a two-year lifespan to provide small grants and other business supports tailored to help early-stage social enterprises overcome challenges when they are starting their projects.

“Twenty-five social enterprises from across Ireland will receive cash grants of between €9,500 and €12,000, as well as access to a six-month tailored training programme.”

“The programme itself comes under the Dormant Accounts Fund in my Department. It will be delivered by Rethink Ireland, who have a great track record in administering supports to social enterprises.”

Deirdre Mortell, CEO of Rethink Ireland, a national organisation supporting Ireland’s best social innovations through various financial and business supports, welcomed the announcement.

Deirdre Mortell, CEO of Rethink Ireland; Image: Rethink Ireland

''At Rethink Ireland we believe that social enterprises can play a pivotal role in supporting the transition to a more inclusive, sustainable and green economy.

We're delighted to be partnering with the Department of Rural and Community Development to provide much-needed start-up funding and supports as part of today's commitment to the Social Enterprise sector in Ireland,” adds Mortell.

Up to 25 social enterprises will receive cash grants of €9,000 each in 2021, and all successful applicants will win a place on the National Accelerator Programme managed by Rethink Ireland.

The programme will empower the most innovative and impactful start-up social enterprises across Ireland to design a competitive business plan, expand their network, increase financial sustainability and communicate their vision and mission to a broader audience.

Applicants must address a critical social issue with an innovative solution in an Irish context and have the potential and a desire to scale or replicate in Ireland.

Ideally, projects should be beyond the idea phase, presenting some market research, at least a prototype, and a minimum amount of sales activity.

Applications are open from July 15th until August 3rd 2021, to not-for-profit nature organisations based in Ireland.

Applicants are invited to complete a short online application form.

An application webinar clinic is held to support potential applicants with any questions they may have on Tuesday, July 20th, from 11 am to 12 pm.

Awardees will be selected from the shortlist of projects which have met the required criteria.

Rethink Ireland created the Fund in partnership with the Department of Rural and Community Development via the Dormant Accounts Fund.

According to Rethink Ireland’s research, this type of funding and support is critical to ensuring social enterprises have the best chance of reaching sustainability and maximising impact in their communities.

Headline image: Annie Spratt on Unsplash

Background style

Light

Sponsored?

July 2021

Dublin BIC

kiss.tamas — Wed, 14 Jul 2021 20:43:01 +0000

Dublin BIC

Location

Ireland

https://www.dublinbic.ie

Reach

Ireland

The Dublin Business Innovation Centre (Dublin BIC) empowers entrepreneurs in Ireland to start and scale by providing a comprehensive range of programmes specifically designed to advance the ambitions of early-stage companies.

Dublin BIC provides programmes across four core areas of expertise:

Investor-Ready Preparation – 85% of Dublin BIC investor-ready start-ups receive funding
Access to Finance – 350 start-ups have received funding through Dublin BIC
Incubation Space – managing two of Ireland’s leading start-up and co-working hubs
Community & Collaboration –In knowledge-sharing, business opportunities and networking

Dublin BIC is here to help the next generation of Irish entrepreneurs start and scale global businesses

Focus

Platform :: Partner categories

Funding | Supports

Networking | Events | Community

Local Enterprise Office Ireland

kiss.tamas — Wed, 14 Jul 2021 20:42:05 +0000

Local Enterprise Office Ireland

Location

Ireland

https://www.localenterprise.ie/

Reach

Ireland

The Local Enterprise Office is the First Stop Shop for anyone seeking information and support on starting or growing a business in Ireland.

They provides advice, information and support to you in starting up or growing your business. With 31 dedicated teams across the Local Authority network in Ireland, Local Enterprise Offices offer you a wide range of experience, skills and services.

The Local Enterprise Office is for people interested in starting up a new business or already in business including; entrepreneurs, early stage promoters, start-ups and small business looking to expand.

Social Innovators in Dublin received €50,000 funding to realise greater impact

Five social innovation projects received significant funding in Dublin to bring more benefits to communities and economy

Inspire

November 2020

Circular Economy training program for SMEs in Ireland to inspire green recovery

Irish businesses can upskill to become more resilient and sustainable by adopting circular economy principles

August 2020

Building the future of Dublin on resilience and innovation

What's next for Dublin City to maintain its position as an internationally recognised innovation hub after the COVID pandemic?

Inspire

June 2020

Focus

Platform :: Partner categories

Funding | Supports

Networking | Events | Community

Alliances Could Not Just Save But Revive Social Innovators

Bronagh Loughlin — Thu, 17 Sep 2020 09:42:46 +0000

Alliances Could Not Just Save But Revive Social Innovators

Tags

Topic

Social Economy stakeholders are joining forces to build alliances

Social innovators are coming together for four days to become more resilient at the virtual annual conference of The European Venture Philanthropy Association (EVPA), running from the 21st to the 24th of September 2020.

Jorgos Papadakis, Marketing and Communications Director for the EVPA details his decision for choosing the theme ‘Building Alliance for Impact’.

He says, “We felt that Building Alliances for Impact was the right theme at the right time. It reflects not only the ever-growing need of all impact investing shareholders to join forces in order to maximize real societal change, but it also corresponds to the specifics of the Covid-19 pandemic.

Dealing with the virus places a lot of these stakeholders, primarily social purpose organizations, under tremendous pressure. And while this annual conference won’t be a pandemic-oriented event, we will have extensive discussions and also showcase specific examples of how such challenges can be tackled in the most effective way”.

Jorgos Papadakis, Marketing and Communications Director, EVPA

The European Venture Philanthropy Association (EVPA) is a lively network of organisations sharing the same vision and a common goal: creating positive societal impact through venture philanthropy. Its membership covers a full range of organisations within the impact ecosystem, including venture philanthropy funds, social investors, grant-making foundations, impact investing funds, private equity firms, professional service firms, philanthropy advisers, banks and business schools.

The conference’s aim is to bring hundreds of professionals together via 60+ interactive and creative sessions where they will learn, engage, network and get visibility. The interactivity of this virtual event will enable collaboration by facilitating open discussions to explore the alliances which tackle global concerns.

EVPA annual conference brings together stakeholders from the #Investing4Impact networks

These open discussions will not only address the ‘why’ but also the ‘how’ which is essential when it comes to tackling global issues.

Although the conference will have a focus on Europe, collaboration truly knows no borders. Whether the discussion is about investing in Latin America, gaining insights into new platforms such as the Deal Share Platform for Africa or gathering information from Asia as a whole, collaboration is absolutely essential to credibly address the major challenges of our time.

To explore concrete ways of closer cooperation with affiliate #Investing4Impact networks and stakeholders, participants will have a unique opportunity to deep dive into various topics such as ‘just transition’, climate change and socially sustainable development.

Jorgos is passionate about the mission of EVPA and says, “Businesses can usually be investors with impact rather than for impact and this is understandable. On the other hand, they are an integral part of the ecosystem, as standalones or through their corporate foundations.

As such, we feel that they have a lot to contribute and a lot to learn by attending our annual conference as

we will showcase concrete examples of how meaningful investments can be conducted in a very difficult environment.

The conference’s 2nd day for instance is the perfect example on how to build a resilient ecosystem that can correspond to the post-Covid 19 landscape in the best possible way”.

The conference is divided into four main themes across the four days.

Day one is about building alliances. Beginning from the public sector and institutional investors, the effectiveness of venture philanthropy will be put to the test and the amount of risk investors for impact are willing to undertake to achieve societal change assessed.

Day two is under the theme of resilience where they will discuss how to prepare for the future with European business leaders, deal with systemic change, and build trust between social investors and public authorities while also learning from COVID-19 response examples in high impact ventures.

The theme for day three is social enterprises. Social entrepreneurship will be discussed along the whole investing for impact spectrum.

Day four will discuss scaling for impact. The conversation will surround what needs to be done in order to maximise impact exactly where it is needed and with the movement of all players.

Jorgos highlights some of the key points of the conference. He says,

“We’ve decided to split the conference into 4 main subthemes, Building Alliances, Resilience, Social Enterprises and Scaling For Impact.

We plan to showcase how to reach these strategic goals through dedicated sessions and workshops as well as design sprints with networks, social entrepreneurs, institutional investors and initiatives that have contributed to achieve real, tangible, impactful change.

I believe it is a unique, very diverse and very rewarding programme and we would like to invite all purpose-driven innovator, investor and other stakeholders to join us and co-shape the future. Because I firmly believe that investing for impact is the future”.

The EVPA Annual Conference is organised with the support of Impact Capital, DOEN Participaties, EIB Institute, Blueplanet Investments, Grupo Ageas Portugal, Erste Bank Group, Fondazione CRT, Demeter and Fundo Inovacao Social.

Footer

Impact event

Background style

Light

Sponsored?

September 2020

Resilience in Wildlife Community Grants

Szilvia Szabó — Mon, 27 Apr 2020 14:00:16 +0000

Resilience in Wildlife Community Grants

Tags

Small grant

Topic

Funding

Wildlife

The Lion’s Share has launched a call for proposals to support initiatives in communities dependent on wildlife-based tourism.

The small grants will be disbursed to non-profit organizations in developing countries seeking funds to demonstrate innovative local-level action to increase resilience and well-being of communities against external shocks such as pandemic crises in wildlife rich areas.

Each proposal will be assessed based on the grant objectives outlined below:

Deliver concrete results within one year of fund transfer;
Represent an investment in a developing country in areas with critical species and habitats with current nature-based tourism activities;
Demonstrate wider community benefits with increased resilience;
Demonstrate innovation and scalability (to other communities);
Address longer-term sustainability of interventions; Provide compelling local stories.

The 'Call for Proposals' document provides further details, including how to apply on Lion's Share website.

Deadline for applications: 5 pm ET, May 15, 2020.

The Lion’s Share is an initiative from film director, Christopher Nelius and Rob Galluzzo, and it is co-founded and fully supported by the UN Development Programme.

Footer

Small grant from Lion's Share Fund

Background style

Light

Sponsored?

April 2020

New initiative to solve Europe’s most pressing social challenges

Szilvia Szabó — Wed, 29 Jan 2020 11:47:33 +0000

New initiative to solve Europe’s most pressing social challenges

Tags

Social Innovation

Topic

Support

Funding

The European Social Catalyst Fund provides supports to bring together public and private resources to improve social services.

The European Social Catalyst Fund (ESCF) is a new initiative designed to have a significant impact on some of Europe’s most pressing social challenges The objective of the program is to bring together public and private resources to improve social services to enable people who need support to live as valued and participating members of their communities.

The ESCF will provide financial and capacity-building support to develop plans to scale proven social service innovations.

The purpose of the grants is to support the development of detailed implementation plans aimed at reducing, or overcoming, social challenges.It is anticipated that these plans will provide details of how public and private resources (philanthropy and/or social investment) can be brought together in a range of collaborations. The key focus will be on further exploring the role that philanthropy and social finance can play in working with the public sector to help re-focus public spending in a more effective direction in the interest of European citizens.

It will award planning grants across a range of priority social challenge areas within, or across, European Union Member States. Support is being offered to successful applicants to develop plans that can be implemented in one or more EU Member States and that are relevant to at least 5 EU Member States.

Preference will be given to innovations that have the most robust evidence of success and that aim to reach the most significant scale.

Each selected applicant will receive a planning grant of up to €100,000 along with capacity-building support. A minimum of €600,000 will be allocated to support at least six plans. Applications close: 15 April 2020.

The European Social Catalyst Fund has been established and co-funded by the European Union’s Horizon 2020 Research and Innovation Programme, Genio (Ireland), the Robert Bosch Stiftung (Germany) and the King Baudouin Foundation (Belgium).

Background style

Light

Sponsored?

January 2020

UNDP launches new Ocean Innovation Challenge

Szilvia Szabó — Mon, 20 Jan 2020 16:43:21 +0000

UNDP launches new Ocean Innovation Challenge

Tags

SDGs

Ocean

Responsible Innovation

Topic

Funding

Open Call

Blue Economy

Financing Innovation for Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) 14 - Life under water

The ocean ecosystem has never faced such a diverse range of threats caused by overfishing, pollution, habitat loss and the multiple impacts of climate change.

Recognising the increasing urgency of tackling ocean pollution, particularly from plastics and nutrients, the first of several planned Ocean Innovation Challenge focuses on SDG 14.1- Reduce Marine Pollution. This open call seeks innovations that are transferable, replicable and scalable offering grants ranging from $50,000 to $250,000.

“To achieve SDG14, we must break new ground with innovative technologies, policies, regulations and financial instruments. In this regard, the new UNDP Ocean Innovation Challenge is a most welcome addition to the growing number of ocean incubators and accelerators.” says Peter Thomson, UN Secretary General’s Special Envoy on Oceans.

That is clear by now that the `business as usual` scenario will not deliver the transformational change needed to move towards sustainable ocean use.

The Ocean Innovation Challenge is issuing a series of 'Ocean Challenges' or Requests for Proposals, each focused on a specific SDG14 target.

This unique new support has been designed to accelerate progress on SDG14 by the identifying, financing, advising and mentoring of genuinely innovative, entrepreneurial and creative approaches to the ocean and coastal restoration and protection that sustains livelihoods and advances the ’blue economy’.

“At a time when the world’s oceans and seas face unprecedented pressures, UNDP’s new Ocean Innovation Challenge will shine a light on innovative, entrepreneurial and creative approaches that can advance ocean and coastal restoration and protection,” says Achim Steiner, UNDP Administrator.

The first 'Ocean Challenge', launched on 8 January 2020, seeks innovative solutions to counter the scourge of ocean pollution.

Initial concepts may be submitted by public or private entities, including governments, private companies (including start-ups), NGO/CSO, United Nations entities, academic institutions, and intergovernmental organizations.

Interested applicants should submit their preliminary proposal here no later than 5 March 2020.

Background style

Light

Sponsored?

January 2020