The Greenius, or Green Genius, national competition aimed at driving forward the UK’s green growth agenda has opened and organisations are invited to compete for a share of £3 million for the development of innovative, near-market technologies leading to commercialisation.
Launched by the Deputy Prime Minister in June, the contest is seeking innovative solutions to questions of food, water and energy sustainability.
This competition is jointly funded by the Department of Energy and Climate Change (DECC), the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra) and the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills (BIS). The competition will be managed by the UK’s innovation agency, the Technology Strategy Board.
Food, water and energy are the themes of this challenge and the competition is seeking solutions and ideas that will link 2 or preferably all 3 of these themes. Solutions must be efficient and sustainable, and must be capable of rapid commercialisation, providing significant benefits for consumers and/or businesses.
- The proposed solutions could, for example:
- Make large scale technologies work at smaller (factory or community) scale;
- Promote closed loop processes;
- Allow consumers better control of the resources that they consume;
- Aim to drive down the cost of a technology.
The competition is in two phases. In the first, 25 contracts will be awarded for feasibility studies lasting up to 13 weeks. In the second phase, the proposed solutions from phase 1 will be assessed for their suitability and up to six development contracts will be awarded, lasting up to 12 months, each leading to a prototype or demonstrator for the proposed technology.
The competition opened on 24 September 2012 and the deadline for registration is 29 October 2012. Applications must be received by 5 November 2012. For further information please visit: Greenius Award