Deadline: 31 January 2020
Mohammed bin Rashid Initiative for Global Prosperity is seeking applications for its “2020 Climate Change – How can communities move towards a low-carbon circular economy by eliminating waste and utilizing existing resources?” Challenge with an aim to find and support solutions from startups and entrepreneurs around the world that will empower communities, especially those in developing countries, to eliminate waste and use existing resources through low-carbon, circular approaches.
To do so, the Mohammed bin Rashid Initiative for Global Prosperity is seeking applications from innovators and makers around the world that will:
- Promote the sustainable use of materials and resources in infrastructure
- Reduce and eliminate the consumption and waste of plastic goods, especially single-use plastics
- Increase utilization rates of products such as electronics and textiles through retaining and sharing ownership
The Global Maker Challenge is an online open-innovation platform that offers an opportunity for ‘makers’ and innovators to connect and collaborate, wherever they are in the world, to solve real-world problems affecting people’s lives. Leveraging manufacturing innovation to provide viable and deployable solutions for the world’s most pressing issues, it invites world-leading manufacturers and organisations to adopt challenges, provide mentorship, and help solve real-world problems.
The transition from a linear to circular economy – in which products and materials are designed to be recycled, repaired, and reused rather than thrown away, and waste from one industrial process becomes input into another – has become widely accepted by businesses and policymakers alike as a new model for resilient growth. In a world where they currently generate over 2 billion tons of solid waste annually and 8 million tons of plastic enter the oceans, the shift towards a circular economy offers great potential for countries to generate new jobs, reduce pollution and litter, and contribute to climate adaptation and mitigation.
At the same time, though developing countries and emerging markets are the current centres of production and increasing centres of consumption, minimal attention has been afforded to the role they can and must play in the shift towards a global circular economy. Given that current estimates place 1 billion new consumers in the developing world by 2025, it is essential that our focus on the circular economy is inclusive. Without the implementation of a successful circular economy model in emerging markets, they will not see the necessary shift in consumption and production patterns worldwide.
Benefits
The Global Maker Challenge will award winners with prizes of value up to USD 1,000,000 in prizes.
Scoring Criteria
- Alignment: The solution addresses the challenge that has been set forth.
- Potential for Impact: The planned implementation of the solution has the potential to impact lives.
- Scalability: The solution can be grown and scaled to affect the lives of more people.
- Innovative Approach: This is a new technology, a new application of a technology, a new business model, or a new process for solving the challenge.
- Feasibility: It is feasible to implement the solution, and the team has a plan for the solution to sustain itself financially.
For more information, visit https://makingprosperity.com/all-cohorts