Deadline: 2-May-23

The Zayed Sustainability Prize, the UAE’s pioneering global award for recognising organisations and high schools with sustainability solutions, has announced that the 2023 cycle is now open for submissions.

The Prize fund comes from the Abu Dhabi Government as a way to honour and continue the sustainability and humanitarian legacy of the founding father of the United Arab Emirates, the late Sheikh Zayed bin Sultan Al Nahyan. The winners will be announced at the Zayed Sustainability Prize Awards Ceremony, which takes place in Abu Dhabi during the Abu Dhabi SustainabilityWeek.

Categories

The Zayed Sustainability Prize awards 5 categories:

• Health: This category recognises organisations that can demonstrate innovative, impactful and inspirational sustainability solutions in the areas of health that include, but are not limited to:
  • Ensuring access to essential and affordable healthcare
  • Ensuring access to maternal and new-born healthcare
  • Ending epidemics (AIDS, Malaria, Tuberculosis etc.)
  • Preventing and treating water-borne, communicable and non-communicable diseases
  • Reducing illness from pollution, hazardous chemicals and contamination
• Food: This category recognises organisations that can demonstrate innovative, impactful and inspirational sustainability solutions in the areas of food that include, but are not limited to:
  • Decreasing hunger and malnutrition
  • Increasing agricultural or other food processing productivity
  • Enhancing sustainable food production
• Energy: This category recognises organisations that can demonstrate innovative, impactful and inspirational sustainability solutions in the areas of energy that include, but are not limited to:
  • Ensuring access to affordable and reliable clean energy
  • Increasing production of clean energy
  • Improving energy efficiency
  • Introducing new forms of clean energy or other technology innovations
• Water: This category recognises organisations that can demonstrate innovative, impactful and inspirational sustainability solutions in the areas of water that include, but are not limited to:
  • Ensuring access to safe and affordable drinking water
  • Ensuring access to sanitation and hygiene
  • Increasing water use efficiency
  • Improving water quality
• Global High Schools
  • The Global High Schools category recognises high schools or secondary schools, from six global geographic regions that propose innovative, impactful and inspirational sustainability projects in the areas of health, food, energy and/or water. The proposed project could be in one area (e.g. water) or a combination of areas (e.g. energy, water, food, and health). The application must be submitted by the students and supported by the school management. The projects must:
    • Demonstrate how they meet the three criteria: impact, innovation, inspiration; as explained in the Evaluation Criteria section of this page;
    • Be able to be implemented and operational within one to two years;
    • Benefit the school community and/or their local/regional community for several years.

Prize Details

The fund allocation per category is as follows:

• Health: US$600,000
• Food: US$600,000
• Energy:  US$600,000
• Water:  US$600,000
• Global High Schools: US$600,000
• There is no alternative to the cash Award.
• The Awards shall be used by the winners, per category, to further the ideas and ambitions within the winning submissions.
• An Award may be subject to withholding tax (if applicable) and/or income tax or other applicable tax which shall be payable by the winner, as applicable. Masdar shall not be liable for any taxes which are or become payable on the Award.
• An Award may be revoked and a refund required if it is discovered that a winner has provided misleading or erroneous information within the submission or it is subsequently discovered that the submission infringes the intellectual property rights of a third party.

Eligible Regions

• The Americas
• Sub-Saharan Africa
• Middle East & North Africa
• Europe & Central Asia
• South Asia
• East Asia & Pacific

Eligibility Criteria

• To be eligible for the above mentioned categories, organisations must be a small or medium-sized enterprise (SME) or a non-profit organisation (NPO).
• The Zayed Sustainability Prize is open to all entrants other than:
  • Board members and employees of Masdar; and
  • Anyone who has been involved in organising, promoting or judging the Prize.
• Masdar, the Selection Committee and the Jury reserve the right and have full discretion to reject or not select any submission for any reason that may, in the sole opinion of the Selection Committee, the Jury or Masdar, damage the reputation of the Prize, the UAE, Abu Dhabi or Masdar, or bring the Prize, the UAE, Abu Dhabi or Masdar into disrepute. The decision of the Selection Committee, the Jury or Masdar shall be final and no follow up correspondence shall be replied to.

For more information, visit Zayed Sustainability Prize.