Prince William announces 15 Finalists for inaugural year of the £50 million Earthshot Prize
17.9.2021 20:01:00 EEST | Business Wire | Press release
The Earthshot Prize announces today its first-ever shortlist of 15 Finalists, each with a chance of winning £1million to support their innovative environmental solutions to the greatest challenges facing the planet.
Prince William said: "Over half a century ago, President Kennedy’s ‘Moonshot’ programme united millions of people around the goal of reaching the moon. Inspired by this, The Earthshot Prize aims to mobilise collective action around our unique ability to innovate, problem solve and repair our planet.
“I am honoured to introduce the 15 innovators, leaders, and visionaries who are the first ever Finalists for The Earthshot Prize. They are working with the urgency required in this decisive decade for life on Earth and will inspire all of us with their optimism in our ability to rise to the greatest challenges in human history.”
Launched by Prince William and The Royal Foundation in October 2020, The Earthshot Prize is the most prestigious global environment prize in history. Like President John F. Kennedy’s ‘Moonshot’ did almost 60 years ago, the Prize aims to unleash an unprecedented wave of innovation and leadership to tackle our greatest environmental challenges. The Earthshot Prize will be awarded every year for the next decade, discovering a total of 50 Winners.
Five of these 15 Finalists will be awarded The Earthshot Prize and will win £1million in Prize funding for the best solutions of the five Earthshot goals: Protect and Restore Nature; Clean our Air; Revive our Oceans; Build a Waste-free World; and Fix our Climate. The Winners will be announced during an awards ceremony on 17th October from London’s Alexandra Palace, broadcast in the UK on BBC One and globally on Discovery+.
The Earthshot Prize Finalists for 2021 are:
Protect and Restore Nature:
- Pole Pole Foundation, Democratic Republic of Congo
An inspiring community-led model of conservation that protects gorillas and local livelihoods.
- The Republic of Costa Rica
A pioneering scheme paying local citizens to restore natural ecosystems that has led to a revival of the rainforest.
- Restor, Switzerland
A ground-breaking online platform connecting and empowering local conservation projects.
Clean our Air:
- The Blue Map App, China
China’s first public environmental database enabling citizens to hold polluters to account.
- Takachar, India
A pioneering technology to create profitable products from agricultural waste and put a stop to the burning of crops.
- Vinisha Umashankar, India
A 14-year-old innovator and activist who has designed a solar-powered ironing cart with the potential to improve air quality across India.
Revive our Oceans:
- Coral Vita, Bahamas
A truly cutting-edge breakthrough in coral farming that can restore our world’s dying coral reefs.
- Living Seawalls, Australia
Innovative and replicable seawall panels bringing marine life back to coastal sea defences.
- Pristine Seas, USA
An unprecedented global conservation programme protecting 6.5 million square km of the world’s ocean.
Build a Waste-Free World:
- The City of Milan Food Waste Hubs, Italy
A city-wide initiative that has dramatically cut waste while tackling hunger.
- Sanergy, Kenya
A circular sanitation solution that converts human waste into safe products for local farmers.
- WOTA BOX, Japan
A tiny water treatment plant that turns 98% of wastewater into clean water.
Fix our Climate:
- AEM Electrolyser, Thailand/Germany/Italy
An ingenious green hydrogen technology developed to transform how we power our homes and buildings.
- Reeddi Capsules, Nigeria
Solar-powered energy capsules making electricity affordable and accessible in energy-poor communities.
- SOLbazaar, Bangladesh
The world’s first peer-to-peer energy exchange network in a country on the front-line of climate change.
All 15 Finalists will receive support from The Earthshot Prize Global Alliance Members, an unprecedented network of global businesses, who will help scale their solutions for even greater impact.
Of these 15 Finalists, the five Winners will be selected by The Earthshot Prize Council, a diverse team of influential individuals which includes: HRH Prince William, Her Majesty Queen Rania Al Abdullah of Jordan, Sir David Attenborough, Dr Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, Indra Nooyi, Shakira Mebarak, Christiana Figueres, Luisa Neubauer, Cate Blanchett, Yao Ming, Daniel Alves Da Silva, Ernest Gibson, Hindou Oumarou Ibrahim, Jack Ma, and Naoko Yamazaki.
In the run-up to the prize-giving ceremony on 17 October, BBC and Discovery will release a 5-part documentary series THE EARTHSHOT PRIZE: REPAIRING OUR PLANET, featuring Earthshot Prize Council Members including Prince William, Shakira Mebarak, Daniel Alves Da Silva and Sir David Attenborough.
For more information about the Finalists and The Earthshot Prize, visit: www.earthshotprize.org, email Claire Straw: TEPmedia@freuds.com, download media pack here.
To view this piece of content from cts.businesswire.com, please give your consent at the top of this page.
View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20210917005454/en/
Contact information
Claire Straw:
TEPmedia@freuds.com
About Business Wire
For more than 50 years, Business Wire has been the global leader in press release distribution and regulatory disclosure.
Subscribe to releases from Business Wire
Subscribe to all the latest releases from Business Wire by registering your e-mail address below. You can unsubscribe at any time.
Latest releases from Business Wire
Mosaic Clinical Technologies Announces FDA Breakthrough Device Designation for Cognita’s Generative AI Model for Radiology5.3.2026 09:00:00 EET | Press release
Mosaic Clinical Technologies™, a wholly-owned subsidiary of Radiology Partners, is pleased to announce that Cognita™, its AI business unit developing generative vision-language models (VLMs) for radiology, has received U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) Breakthrough Device Designation for Cognita Chest X-Ray (CXR)™1 across multiple critical indications. Cognita CXR is an industry-first generative vision-language model designed to assist radiologists in the interpretation of chest X-rays and is the first radiology generative AI model, and one of very few radiology AI solutions, to be granted this designation2. This press release features multimedia. View the full release here: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20260304633206/en/ Cognita™ operates as the AI business unit of Mosaic Clinical Technologies™, a wholly owned subsidiary of Radiology Partners, the largest radiology practice in the U.S, with more than 4,000 radiologists in its network. Cognita CXR1 applies a proprietary
SOLUM and Simbe Expand European Collaboration to Advance Intelligent Store Operations5.3.2026 09:00:00 EET | Press release
SOLUM (KOSPI: 248070) and Simbe announced the expansion of their strategic collaboration to further integrate autonomous store intelligence with SOLUM’s Newton Electronic Shelf Label (ESL) infrastructure across Europe. The collaboration was highlighted at EuroShop, where Simbe’s Store Intelligence™ platform was demonstrated live at the SOLUM booth. This press release features multimedia. View the full release here: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20260304620371/en/ SOLUM and Simbe announced the expansion of their strategic collaboration to further integrate autonomous store intelligence with SOLUM’s Newton Electronic Shelf Label (ESL) infrastructure across Europe. (Image: SOLUM) Simbe recently introduced Tally 4.0, the next generation of their autonomous shelf-scanning robot, reflecting the company’s continued evolution in retail shelf digitization, incorporating extended runtime, enhanced edge computing, and advanced vision capabilities. Designed to deliver deeper shelf coverag
Cielo Advances Resilient Remote Connectivity for Its Nationwide Payment Terminal Fleet With Thales5.3.2026 09:00:00 EET | Press release
For Cielo, connectivity is mission critical. When payment terminals lose network access, transactions stop. To strengthen operational resilience and enhance merchant experience, Cielo is modernizing its connectivity architecture across its terminal fleet. This press release features multimedia. View the full release here: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20260304089321/en/ Cielo advances resilient remote connectivity for its nationwide payment terminal fleet with Thales. Using Thales’s eSIM technology as part of this strategy, Cielo can remotely switch mobile network operators over the air in just a few seconds, without sending a technician and with minimal disruption to merchants’ activity. For merchants, the experience is seamless: if a network becomes unstable, the payment terminal can automatically reconnect to another available network, often without the merchant even noticing. This deployment represents one of the first large-scale implementations of the SGP.32 eSIM specifi
GAIA and Daiichi Sankyo Europe Enter Exclusive Partnership to Launch Next-Generation Digital Therapeutic for Cardiovascular Care in Europe.5.3.2026 09:00:00 EET | Press release
GAIA, the pioneer in evidence-based digital therapeutics and Daiichi Sankyo Europe, today announced an exclusive strategic partnership to commercialize lipodia upon regulatory approval1. This press release features multimedia. View the full release here: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20260224658973/en/ Dr. Mario Weiss, Founder & CEO of GAIA AG This digital therapeutic is designed to support adults living with hypercholesterolemia. The comprehensive collaboration brings together GAIA’s long-standing expertise in developing clinically validated non-pharmacological interventions with Daiichi Sankyo’s highly scientific experience in cardiovascular risk management and health. Together, the partners - both members of the German Association of Research-Based Pharmaceutical Companies (vfa) - aim to address a persistent gap in chronic care: leveraging digital technologies to make a difference in patients’ lives by supporting sustainable, long-term behaviour change. Expanding Cardiovasc
Galderma Delivers Record 2025 Results With Net Sales of 5.207 Billion USD, up 17.7% at Constant Currency 1 , and Core EBITDA 2 of 1.211 billion USD, Growing 18.9% at Constant Currency5.3.2026 08:00:00 EET | Press release
Galderma Group AG (SIX:GALD), the pure-play dermatology category leader, today announced its financial results for the full year 2025. Record net sales of 5,207 million USD, surpassing 5 billion USD in a year for the first time and representing 17.7% year-on-year growth on a constant currency1 basis, primarily driven by volume. Broad-based net sales growth, growing double-digits in both International markets and the U.S. Outperforming the market in each product category, with strong net sales growth in Injectable Aesthetics (11.5%), Dermatological Skincare (9.3%) and Therapeutic Dermatology (50.2%), all year-on-year at constant currency. Strong launch momentum across future growth drivers, including Nemluvio® (nemolizumab) delivering 452 million USD in net sales; Relfydess™ (RelabotulinumtoxinA) outperforming expectations in 17 International markets; Sculptra® gaining significant market share in its first year in China; and continued new product launches across Galderma’s full portfoli
In our pressroom you can read all our latest releases, find our press contacts, images, documents and other relevant information about us.
Visit our pressroom