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Over 750 promising sustainability ideas to battle ClimateLaunchpad Competition
February 16, 2017 – ClimateLaunchpad kicks off the fourth edition of its successful green business idea competition in Amsterdam, welcoming Serbia, Azerbaijan, France and Germany as new participating countries. With interest from Argentina, India, Kenya and Australia, ClimateLaunchpad is no longer a European affair. Over 35 countries are expected to join the 2017 edition.
The competition is set up to help aspiring entrepreneurs grow their green ideas into global businesses. In all participating countries the teams start with a 2-day Boot Camp and six Coaching Sessions to prepare for their National Finals. The top-3 of all competing countries will battle the Grand Final in Cyprus, in October 2017.
The competition is now open for applications. ClimateLaunchpad welcomes innovations in renewable energy, energy efficiency, food and agriculture, water, transportation, industrial technology or any other way to tackle climate change. The judging criteria are impact on climate change, business potential and skills within the team.
Frans Nauta, founder of ClimateLaunchpad: “We have to fix climate change and we have one generation to fix it. All over the world there are so many great entrepreneurs working on ideas to tackle climate change. ClimateLaunchpad boosts those entrepreneurs to global success through training and giving them an international stage.”
The world’s best ideas win access to Climate-KIC’s renowned Accelerator programme, focused at cleantech commercialization. The overall winner of the Grand Final also receives a cash prize of €10,000, the runner up gets €5,000 and the team that comes in third place wins €2,500. There are also five theme awards participants can win in the categories Urban Transitions, Sustainable Land Use, Sustainable Production Services and Decision Metrics.
ClimateLaunchpad is part of the Entrepreneurship offerings of Climate-KIC, the EU’s main climate innovation initiative. The competition is supported by over 100 partners from all over Europe. They include companies like Accenture, Benard Schulte Shipmanagement, Deloitte, Ernst & Young, Hellenic Bank, Microsoft, PWC, Sparebank, Volvo and World Wide Fund.
Information about CimateLaunchpad, how to enter the competition and updates are available at www.climatelaunchpad.org (hashtag #clp2017)
The National lead for Kenya is Edward Mungai who is the Chief Executive Officer of Kenya Climate Innovation Center. The closing date for applications in Kenya is 7th July, 2017. Applications can be sent to apply@kenyacic.org
About ClimateLaunchpad and Climate-KIC
ClimateLaunchpad (www.climatelaunchpad.org) is a programme by Climate-KIC; the EU’s main climate innovation initiative. It is Europe’s largest public-private innovation partnership focused on mitigating and adapting to climate change. Climate-KIC consists of an international network of companies, academic institutions and the public sector. Climate-KIC is one of the Knowledge and Innovation Communities (KICs) created in 2010 by the European Institute of Innovation and Technology (EIT), the EU body tasked with creating sustainable European growth while dealing with the global challenges of our time. www.climate-kic.org
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About Kenya Climate Innovation Center
The Kenya Climate Innovation Center (KCIC) provides holistic, country-driven support to accelerate the development, deployment and transfer of locally relevant climate and clean energy technologies. The KCIC provides incubation, capacity building services and financing to Kenyan entrepreneurs and new ventures that are developing innovative solutions in energy, water and agribusiness to address climate change challenges. Fore more information visit www.kenyacic.org
Kenya Climate Innovation Center
