The Search for the First Earthshot Winners Begins

More than 100 Nominating Partners spanning every corner of the Earth have begun the search for the first winners of The Earthshot Prize – the most prestigious environment prize in history, launched by Prince William and The Royal Foundation last month.

Nominating Partners have been invited to submit nominations of those individuals, communities, businesses and organisations whose solutions will make the most progress towards achieving the five Earthshots – simple but ambitious goals which if achieved by 2030 will improve life for us all, for generations to come.

Launched on 8th October by Prince William and a global coalition of individuals, businesses and organisations, The Earthshot Prize aims to find new solutions to the world’s biggest environmental problems.  The launch of the Prize comes after two years of work by Prince William and The Royal Foundation of The Duke and Duchess of Cambridge to develop a project which will support the global effort to protect and restore the environment.

Every year from 2021 until 2030, Prince William, alongside The Earthshot Prize Council, will award The Earthshot Prize to five winners, one per Earthshot. Together, the five Earthshots 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.

The Nominating Partners are part of an unprecedented global coalition who are now searching for the visionaries with the ideas, solutions, and leadership to repair the planet in this decisive decade.

Beginning today, the 5-stage prize process to select a winner for each Earthshot is as follows:

The process has been designed in partnership with the Centre for Public Impact and a range of international experts. Nominations will be screened from February as part of an independent assessment process run by Deloitte, our implementation partner, ahead of shortlisted solutions being subject to a final evaluation including in-person or virtual site visits and meetings in early summer.  A distinguished panel of experts will support the judging process, making recommendations to the Earthshot Prize Council who will select the final winners ahead of the annual award ceremony, the first of which will take place in London in 2021.

The Earthshot Prize’s nominators have been selected for their ability to identify the most impactful solutions to the five Earthshot challenges across all countries and sectors, from grassroots to businesses. Spanning the globe, nominators include our Global Alliance, a network of global organisations committed to environmental action who share the ambition of the Prize to repair the planet, as well as academic and non-profit institutions and private sector alliances from around the world.

After the awards, each winner will receive a global platform and prestigious profile, with their stories being showcased over the decade and the ambition that their solutions lead to mass adoption, replication and scaling.  The £1 million in prize money will support environmental and conservation projects that are agreed with the winners.  Shortlisted nominees will also be given tailored support and opportunities to help scale their work, including being connected with an ecosystem of likeminded individuals and organisations.

Over the course of the next decade, The Earthshot Prize will find and highlight the most inspiring solutions to the world’s greatest challenges.  But the Prize is about much more than awarding achievement – it is a decade of action to convene the environmental world with funders, businesses and individuals to maximise impact and take solutions to scale, to celebrate the people and places driving change; and to inspire people all over the world to work together to repair the planet.