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Chris Large |
| Director of Portfolio & Prize, The Earthshot Prize |
The search for our next cohort of Finalists is well underway, with nominations pouring in as we approach the deadline for submissions for The Earthshot Prize 2025. As ever, each incredible solution gives us immense hope for the future of our planet.
As that process continues, I want to reflect on ways in which The Earthshot Prize has evolved into a platform and prize. This transformation reflects our commitment not only to celebrating 15 outstanding solutions each year, but to fostering a global movement that supports innovators to scale their impact – our Winners, Finalists and now Nominees from the wider database.
Over the years, a diverse, powerful, and influential community has united under the common goal of protecting and regenerating our planet. A community that believes that scaling ambitious innovation is the answer to our challenges; that believes that if we act with urgent optimism, our collective vision can be realised.
The Earthshot Prize is more than our internal team. It is a community of nominators, experts, partners, and innovators. Together, we have created a powerful platform that can speed groundbreaking solutions to scale.
The Earthshot Prize Launchpad is an innovative online matchmaking platform that brings together a huge community of investors and philanthropists with the capital required to bring environmental solutions to scale.
Our central principle has never changed: The Earthshot Prize exists to spotlight brilliant innovators, support them to scale, and generate a sense of optimism that we can repair and regenerate our planet.
This began by awarding five incredible, high-impact solutions with £1 million to support their journey to scale. Over the years, we’ve come to recognise the numerous game-changing solutions available and the strength of our community of ambitious organisations that supports them. And so, as we’ve grown, we’ve developed ways we can elevate and service Nominees from our wider portfolio.
We currently have 3,800 Nominees in our portfolio. While only 15 can become Finalists each year, being nominated can now open a world of opportunities and possibilities.
Here are four ways we are supporting Nominees in our wider portfolio beyond the Prize:
And as we evolve further, we plan to open even more opportunities and support for hundreds of Nominees in our portfolio.
We continuously review our portfolio each year when selecting Finalists. This means that even if a solution is not chosen in its original nomination year, it can still be selected as a Finalist in subsequent years. Notably, five of the 2024 Finalists had been nominated previously.
We recognise that solutions evolve over time; if they are not quite ready at the time of nomination, they still have the opportunity to be considered as potential Finalists as they mature.
Existing Nominees are encouraged to update their information each year to reflect their latest achievements.
Nidhi Pant, Co-Founder of 2023 Earthshot Prize Winner S4S Technologies speaks during London Climate Action Week 2024. S4S solar-powered dryers and processing equipment combats food waste, enabling small-hold farmers to preserve crops and turn produce that might otherwise go to waste into valuable products.
The solutions that we’re looking for are transformative and best-in-class. Solutions that are revolutionising their fields with unique ideas and have the potential to bring about significant environmental improvement.
We select nominations based on rigorous evaluation and assessment with support from our Expert Advisory Panel of specialist scientists and industry experts, and our assessment process partners.
Our primary criterion is impact potential, which can be achieved in two ways:
We’re looking for solutions that can grow to have globally relevant scale or be replicated on a globally relevant level that will have a tangible impact on our Earthshots.
Solutions can be any type, so long as they work: that could be a technical product like d.light; an advocacy group like High Ambition Coalition for Nature and People; a coalition like Amazon Sacred Headwaters Alliance; or a service like Keep IT Cool.
Solutions must articulate their impact to date and their potential to make a difference in the future. We evaluate solutions based on real-world evidence alongside theoretical models or lab tests.
With support from a board of scientists from different sectors, our rigorous assessment includes:
While the impact on the planet is most important, solutions will preferably also have a huge impact on people across the world. We want people everywhere – especially young people – to see our Finalists and be inspired.
To achieve this, we create cohorts that are not only innovative but diverse, inclusive, and representative of global communities. When people see Finalists working in communities similar to their own and addressing challenges relevant to them, they feel inspired, energised, and hopeful.
Diversity is powerful. Only by bringing together a broad range of minds and experiences can we hope to understand and take on the challenges our planet is facing.
After four cohorts and 60 Finalists, we have successfully represented a broad spectrum of geographies, people, and issues. For the areas we have yet to reach, we are committed to expanding our representation.
We currently collaborate with almost 500 visionary nominators selected for their specific knowledge and insights, and their ability to identify the most impactful solutions for our five Earthshots.
They represent not-for-profit, philanthropic, investment, corporate, academic, governmental and community led organisations; and they are all united by a common aim to repair the planet by speeding innovation to scale.
As we grow, so does our list of nominators, each bringing insight into a sector of solutions that have the potential to make a big impact. For example, Ferment’Up, one of this year’s Finalists, was nominated by Global Invest Her, an organisation dedicated to supporting women entrepreneurs to scale their solutions.
Nominators sectoral knowledge comes in all shapes and sizes, such as indigenous-led solutions, battery solutions, Southeast Asian solutions, tech innovations, advocacy approaches and a whole host of other specialist fields. Their specialist knowledge and understanding gives us tremendous confidence in the solutions they put forward.
You can learn more about our nominators here.
Ninna Grannucci, CEO of 2024 Earthshot Prize Finalists, Green Spot Technologies, who produce Ferment’Up - a product that uses fermentation to transform commercial food waste into nutritious and healthy alternative ingredients.
Our ambition is to create the most comprehensive, inclusive and broad-ranging portfolio of solutions. Solutions that operate in everything from the public sector to for-profit startups; solutions that exist in every corner of the planet; solutions with complementary ways to address the most pressing problems.
The question we’re asking ourselves now is how can we make our portfolio and the data it contains most useful? How can this database help governments, corporates, and other organisations to accelerate the pace at which innovations scale up? How do we continue to open a world of opportunity for our innovators? Is there a role for AI in how we seek out and understand the merits of solutions that can augment the vital role of nominators and experts?
To answer these questions, we’re listening to our network of innovators and partners, and investing in pilots in which we work with a small number of partners to test ways to support Nominees from the database.
While only five innovators can each take home the £1 million prize money each year, the Earthshot Prize community is actively creating opportunity and support for more Nominees. This community has the potential to speed hundreds of solutions to scale this decade, and it all starts with a simple nomination.
If you want to nominate a solution for The Earthshot Prize, you have until 11 December 2024 to submit your entry. If you are not yet a nominator, please register your interest.
If you’re an innovator seeking nomination, explore our directory of Official Nominators to find one that is a good fit for considering nominating your solution.
