NextBillion - An Initiative of the William Davidson Institute at the University of Michigan

Each year the RELX Environmental Challenge is awarded to projects that best demonstrate how they can provide sustainable access to safe water or sanitation. There is a $50,000 prize for the first place entry and a $25,000 prize for the second place entry. The winners also receive free access for one year to ScienceDirect, our Scientific, Technical & Medical business’ database of full text, scientific information, including almost 250,000 articles since 2000 in Environmental Sciences.

The RELX Environmental Challenge is open to individuals or organisations operating in the not-for-profit and for-profit sectors. Projects must advance sustainable access to safe water where it is presently at risk and/or access to improved sanitation, and include the following criteria:

• Be replicable, scalable and sustainable. and set a benchmark for innovation
• Have practical applicability
• Address non-discrimination/equity of access
• Involve and impact a range of stakeholders
• Have local/community-level engagement

These are the criteria against which projects will be assessed. Early-stage projects are preferred. The winning project in the RELX Environmental Challenge will receive a single payment of $50,000, with the second-place finisher receiving a single payment of $25,000.

Get in touch at environmental.challenge@relx.com. Read more about the RELX Environmental Challenge and the continued success of past winners.

 

Judging

Applications are reviewed against the RELX Environmental Challenge criteria by the RELX Environmental Challenge advisory group, comprised of relevant internal and external water and sanitation specialists. Those in contention for the shortlist are reviewed by an expert panel of external judges.