2018 Zayed Sustainability Prize open for entries
The submission deadline for applicants is 9 August 2018. With a total prize fund of $3m, the prize awards winners across five distinct categories that include: Health, Food, Energy, Water and Global High Schools.
The interconnected pillars of health, food, energy and water represent the basic needs essential to human survival where innovations will yield progress in sustainable development. The evolution from the Zayed Future Energy Prize into the Zayed Sustainability Prize addresses the inter-related nature of the world’s global resource systems that determines progress of social, economic and environmental improvements.
Reflecting the most pressing sustainability challenges
Dr Lamya Fawwaz, director of the Zayed Sustainability Prize, said: “The categories of the Zayed Sustainability Prize have been carefully selected to reflect the most pressing sustainability challenges and offer the greatest socio-economic impact on the lives of people around the world. The prize will also look to inspire today’s youth to be forward-thinkers and cultivate within them a vested interest in becoming agents of change for sustainable development – after all, youth of today are leaders of tomorrow.”
“Africa represents the fastest growing region for entrepreneurship in the world. With award-winning projects, our winners from the continent and globally have had positive and sustainable impact on its people. Over the last decade, we have witnessed a growing interest from participants across the African continent and we expect the momentum to continue growing this year. We hope to facilitate collaborations between our ever-growing network of innovators to build stronger, more sustainable innovations and projects that will propel the continent forward,” Fawwaz added.
Three-stage evaluation process
The Zayed Sustainability Prize has a three-stage evaluation process, beginning with the due diligence that is conducted by a reputed international research and analysis consultancy. Following this, the shortlisted entries will undergo evaluations by a selection committee to determine the finalists. From these finalists, a jury will select the winners in all five categories, including the winning schools from six world regions.
The deliberations on who wins the Zayed Sustainability Prize are set against three core criteria where entrants must demonstrate:
Impact: Significant and tangible outcomes on the quality of people’s lives;
Innovation: Distinctive characteristics to change the 'status quo' and potential to catalyse opportunities that will have a disruptive positive impact and transformative change;
Inspiration: The potential to scale up project outcomes in the next decade and the ability to inspire others.
Winners of the Zayed Sustainability Prize will be announced at the awards ceremony during the opening of the Abu Dhabi Sustainability Week on 14 January 2019.
For more information, go to www.ZayedSustainabilityPrize.com.
