Lancaster University leads with a key role in £5M global prize for the environment
A leading sustainable solutions centre at Lancaster University has been invited to play a key role in a prestigious prize led by Prince William and Sir David Attenborough.
Launched in 2020, 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 The Earthshot Prize winners will be awarded £1,000,000 to support their work.
Selected for its ability to identify impactful solutions from across all sectors, Lancaster University’s award-winning Centre for Global Eco-Innovation is proud to be invited back as an official ‘nominator’ for the third year running. Official nominators form the first stage of the prize process by receiving and putting forward applications from around the globe that will help make tangible progress towards The Earthshot Prize objectives. Applications are now being sought from individuals, organisations and teams for the 2023 The Earthshot Prize.
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 Lancaster 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 supporting and delivering sustainable innovations and solutions we’re very excited about the Earthshot, and delighted to have been asked to be a nominator for the third year running. 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 5-stage prize process to select a winner for each Earthshot is as follows:
1. Nominations: the Centre for Global Eco-Innovation and other nominators are seeking out solutions from across the globe that will help us reach the Earthshots
2. Screening: Nominations will be screened as part of an independent assessment process
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: Each year the winners of The Earthshot Prize will be announced at annual awards ceremonies, which will take place in different cities across the world each year until 2030.