Wilkes Climate Innovation Prize 2026 ($250,000 grand prize) – YOA

Deadline: February 28, 2026

Applications are open for the Wilkes Climate Innovation Prize 2026. The Wilkes Climate Innovation Prize seeks daring, excessive-potential options that deal with important challenges affecting the local weather/power/economic system ecosystem and are positioned to make measurable progress towards actual-world use.

The Prize is designed to help options at a stage the place uncertainty stays excessive, standard funding or adoption pathways are restricted, and focused help can plausibly affect outcomes. Solutions could also be technological, coverage-pushed, operational, monetary, or hybrid.

Benefits

• Financial Support
  • One Grand Prize award of $250,000 USD in non-dilutive funding to help validation, pilots, or readiness for scale
• Visibility & Recognition
  • Recognition on the Wilkes Climate Summit and related occasions
  • Inclusion in Wilkes Center communications and press outreach
  • Institutional credibility related to a number one analysis college
• Targeted Support & Connection
  • Curated introductions to potential funders, companions, and advisors
  • Opportunities to take part in convenings, roundtables, or networking occasions related to the Prize
  • Participation within the Wilkes Prize alumni group

Eligibility

• Applicants could also be for-revenue or nonprofit organizations, educational groups, public-sector innovators, or mission-pushed collaborations from wherever on the planet.
• You ought to think about making use of if:
  • You are engaged on an answer with a transparent actual-world application, not solely a theoretical idea
  • Your resolution addresses a fabric local weather-system problem, not a marginal enchancment
  • You can articulate what must occur subsequent and what presently stands in the best way 
  • Support at this stage may meaningfully change your trajectory

Selection Criteria

Applications are evaluated by unbiased judges utilizing standards that embrace:

• Climate-system affect and relevance
• Plausibility and readability of your execution path
• Differentiation, high quality of perception and clear co-advantages
• Team experience and organizational functionality
• Catalytic match with the Wilkes Climate Innovation Prize

Application

Click here to apply

For extra info, go to Wilkes Climate Innovation Prize.