Lancaster takes a key role in £5m global prize for the environment
A leading sustainable solutions centre at Lancaster University has been selected as one of 100 world-wide official ‘nominators’ for a prestigious prize led by Prince William and Sir David Attenborough.
The Earthshot Prize, described as the most ambitious and prestigious of its kind, is designed to provide incentive for change and help to repair our planet over the next ten years.
Each year, five winners will be awarded £1,000,000 to support their work.
Lancaster University’s award-winning Centre for Global Eco-Innovation has been listed as one of the official ‘nominators’ to the award and is now taking expressions of interest from individuals, companies and teams.
Taking inspiration from President John F. Kennedy’s Moonshot, which united millions of people around an organising goal to put people on the moon and catalysed the development of new technology in the 1960s, The Earthshot Prize is centred around five ‘Earthshots’. These are simple but ambitious goals for our planet which, if achieved by 2030, will improve life for us all, for generations to come.
The prize will reward achievement and action in the following five areas:
- Protect and restore nature
- Clean our air
- Revive our oceans
- Build a waste-free world
- Fix our climate
Together, they form a unique set of challenges rooted in science, which aim to generate new ways of thinking, as well as new technologies, systems, policies and solutions. By bringing these five critical issues together, the Earthshot Prize recognises the interconnectivity between environmental challenges and the urgent need to tackle them together.
The Centre for Global Eco-Innovation is a university Research Centre focused on bringing together the cross-disciplinary expertise and cross-sector collaborations needed to create and deliver products, services and practices that help both people and our environment prosper.
Professor Jess Davies, Director of the Centre for Global Eco-Innovation said: “As a Centre focused on sustainable solutions we’re very excited about the Earthshots, and delighted to have been asked to be a nominator and be a part of this initiative. We recognise that the action areas highlighted by this prize are some of the most important, urgent, and ambitious challenges of our times.
“We are looking forward to receiving nominations from a wide range of individuals, teams or collaborations – scientists, activists, economists, community projects, leaders, governments, banks, businesses, cities, and countries – anyone whose workable solutions make a substantial contribution to achieving the Earthshots.
“We have always taken an open approach at the Centre, and we welcome your ideas.”
The five -stage prize process to select a winner for each Earthshot is as follows:
1. Nominations: The Centre for Global Eco-innovation and other nominators seek solutions from across the globe that will help us reach our Earthshots
2. Screening: Nominations will be screened as part of an independent assessment process run by Deloitte,
3. Shortlist: A distinguished panel of experts will support the judging process, making recommendations to The Earthshot Prize Council.
4. Selection: Prince William and The Earthshot Prize Council select the five winners.
5. Awards: The winners of The Earthshot Prize will be announced at an awards ceremony, which will take place in different cities across the world each year between 2021 and 2030.
Nominations can only be made through an appointed nominator, and the Centre for Global Eco-Innovation is calling for expressions of interest to be submitted by midnight on Sunday 17th January. Download an expression of interest form here: Earthshotprize-EOI.