Deadline: December 18, 2020.

Business and ecosystems are connected. Companies affect ecosystems because they rely on their provisioning services, such as freshwater, food, land, to name a few. The world’s ecosystem services have been degraded over the past 50 years and we continue to deplete our natural resources at an alarming rate. While many of the effects are felt locally first, the long-term consequences are global and the scale of change is highly relevant to business, presenting risks and opportunities.

Novartis looks forward to supporting SDG 15 by funding a project, which utilises data/digital/novel technologies in order to generate positive action, protect, restore and sustainably use the services provided by natural land ecosystem. The project should address at least one of the following:

• Freshwater recycling capacity
• Restoring biodiversity of the ecosystem
• Deforestation
• Desertification

ELIGIBILITY

A. Aligned: Evidently aligned with the SDG 15 challenge. See ‘About’.

B. Youth-led: Founded by a person aged 18 – 30.

C. Focused: Well-structured time horizon, identified key stakeholders and beneficiaries, and proposed outcomes that are reasonable and well thought out.

D. Proven: Readily available, in or past implementation phase.

E. Impactful: Solutions must have a positive social impact, for example generating employment, or developing skills.

F. Measurable: Impacts of solutions must have been adequately measured and/or be measurable.

G. Financially viable: Must be able to achieve efficiency and to survive independently through the resources they generate and/or the investments and donations they attract.

H. Scalable: Potential to perform as well or better after expanding in scope or size and/or being transported to other regions.

BENEFITS

The winning solution will receive:

• A US$50,000 grant from Novartis
• 12 months of mentorship from a team of Novartis professionals. The mentorship team will work to accelerate your solution based on the needs of your initiative or organisation, such as:
  • Business strategy
  • Best practices for data collection
  • Monitoring and evaluation
  • Product design

APPLICATION

Please note that it’s not possible to save your progess on this application form. Because of this, they reccomend that you first read through the form to get an understanding of the questions and then prepare your responses in an offline document. 

In addition to answering questions about yourself and your organisation, the application form will also ask you to: 

• Provide a link to a video personal statement
• Upload a copy of your buisness/organisation plan
• Upload proof of your organisation’s business/charity registration

OFFICIAL LINK

https://www.oneyoungworld.com/lead2030/challenge-sdg15