Submissions open for the Zayed Sustainability Prize 2020

Students from all over the world are invited to enter their projects

1ABU DHABI, UNITED ARAB EMIRATES - JANUARY 9, 2019. A 20mx20m light installation, comprised of 2,000 solar lanterns, arranged to reveal the Zayed Sustainability Prize logo. Following a month-long, five-country, transcontinental journey, the Zayed Sustainability Prizes Guiding Light campaign arrived to Abu Dhabi today. (Photo by Reem Mohammed/The National) Reporter: Section: NAShow less

Organisers of the Zayed Sustainability Prize 2020 are now accepting this year’s entries.

Students from all over the world are invited to submit projects aimed at finding sustainable development solutions.

Categories for submissions include health, food, energy, water and global high schools.

Entries in the first four divisions are judged on their potential to impact the quality of people’s lives and the potential to scale up the idea's outcomes.

Projects in the global high schools category should be aimed at delivering a positive educational influence.

“We hope to continue attracting and rewarding the world’s foremost sustainability pioneers, while encouraging an agenda that supports an integrated approach to resolving global sustainability challenges,” said Dr Sultan Ahmed Al Jaber, the UAE’s Minister of State and director general of the prize.

“The prize’s broader recognition of sustainability solutions marked a significant milestone in the prize’s evolution, in line with the UAE leadership’s vision to support ideas and efforts aimed at building a sustainable future.”

The Zayed Sustainability Prize has a three-stage evaluation process, which starts with analysis by an international research consultancy.

Shortlisted entries are then scrutinised by a selection committee, with a jury choosing the winners in all five categories.

Entrants are broken down into six regions: The Americas, Sub-Saharan Africa, Middle East and North Africa, Europe and Central Asia, South Asia, and East Asia and Pacific.

The winners of the Zayed Sustainability Prize 2020 will be announced during the Abu Dhabi Sustainability Week, in January next year.

In 2019, an initiative which fortified flour in reduce malnutrition in East Africa was one of the winners. It received Dh2.2 million to help fund the projects.

The closing date for this year's submission is May 30.