NESTA's £1m Big Green Challenge

The Big Green Challenge is one of several experimental, high-impact projects developed by the Innovation Challenges team at NESTA – the National Endowment for Science, Technology and the Arts. It is one of the ways NESTA is pioneering new approaches to stimulating innovation around the UK and building a body of evidence about how best to encourage and support innovation.

NESTA has committed a £1 million prize fund to reward the finalists who perform best.

NESTA expect the majority of the prize fund to go to an overall winner, with the remaining prize money distributed to runners-up at the discretion of the judges.

They understand that this is an ambitious and difficult challenge. That’s why they are working with partners such as Unltd to offer advice and encouragement to participants. They will also offer practical support and some funding to ten finalists.

They want people to work together to reduce emissions, so the £1 million prize fund is only open to organisations or groups of people. Each group or organisation entering the competition will need to be formally constituted as not-for-profit, although you can apply in the meantime while you sort this out.

You can also be involved in the Challenge as part of your wider community. Groups and organisations that apply will need to involve and engage their respective communities in developing solutions and in delivering their approaches.

Events will be organised around the UK in November and December 2007 so that you can ask NESTA, and their partners, your questions. You’ll also be able to meet and be inspired by some of the people and projects that are tackling climate change in your area. They will also be publishing case studies, links, tips and stories about the Big Green Challenge. If you can’t get to one of their events, they have tried to answer as many questions as possible in on their website. You can also contact one of the regional offices or their partner Unltd for advice.

The Challenge will take place over two years – from October 2007 to October 2009 - and will require you to engage and involve your community. NESTA are aware that ‘community’ means different things to different people. You can define ‘community’ as it is relevant to you, but you need to consider the activities, people, buildings and equipment that are used by, and are part of, that community.

How to Apply

The Fund is not open for applications just yet - they will be asking for your applications in January 2008, so make it your New Year’s resolution to apply! In the meantime, you can sign up to stay in touch.

Stage 1: Once you have confirmed that your group or organisation is eligible and interested, you will need to select a member of your group or organisation as the main contact for the competition. They don’t need to be the leader of the group, but they do need to be someone who is good at organising things. This person will need to send in the application form on behalf of the group. The form will be available on this site in early January 2008 until theclosing date - 29 February 2008.

Stage 2: NESTA's judges will evaluate all applications and select up to 100 that they think have scored highest. These groups will be asked to submit detailed plans about their approach for implementing, monitoring and demonstrating the reduction of emissions (and other associated factors) in their community. From these, judges will decide on up to ten finalists, who will progress to the third and final stage.

Stage 3: The ten finalists will have a year to put their approach into practice to demonstrate the reduction in emissions, spanning October 2008 to October 2009. To help finalists in this stage, they will provide advice and financial support (up to £20k). At the end of the year, NESTA will announce the winner.

www.biggreenchallenge.org.uk