Call for Applications: Zayed Sustainability Prize

Deadline Date: June 23, 2025

 Donor Name: Masdar

 Grant Size: $500,000 to $1 million

https://entry.zayedsustainabilityprize.com/ZSPHome

Applications are now open for the Zayed Sustainability Prize that recognises and rewards small to medium-sized enterprises (SMEs), nonprofit organisations (NPOs), and global high schools with impactful, innovative and inspiring sustainable solutions.

Established by the UAE leadership in 2008, the Prize honours the humanitarian and sustainability legacy of the UAE’s founding father, the late Sheikh Zayed bin Sultan Al Nahyan. Over the past 16 years, the Zayed Sustainability Prize has awarded 117 winners who have positively impacted the lives of 384 million people around the world.

Categories

• Health
  • This category recognises organisations that have demonstrated innovative, impactful and inspirational sustainability solutions in the areas of health that include, but are not limited to:
    • Ensuring access to essential and affordable healthcare
    • Ensuring access to maternal and newborn healthcare
    • Ending epidemics (AIDS, Malaria, Tuberculosis etc.)
    • Preventing and treating water-borne, communicable and non-communicable diseases
    • Reducing illness from pollution, hazardous chemicals and contamination
• Food
  • This category recognises organisations that have demonstrated innovative, impactful and inspirational sustainability solutions in the areas of food that include, but are not limited to:
    • Decreasing hunger and malnutrition
    • Increasing agricultural or other food processing productivity
    • Ensuring sustainability of food systems
    • Enhancing sustainable food production
• Energy
  • This category recognises organisations that have demonstrated innovative, impactful and inspirational sustainability solutions in the areas of energy that include, but are not limited to:
    • Ensuring access to affordable and reliable clean energy
    • Increasing production of clean energy
    • Improving energy efficiency and energy infrastructure
    • Implementing clean energy technology innovation
• Water
  • This category recognises organisations that can demonstrated innovative, impactful and inspirational sustainability solutions in the areas of water that include, but are not limited to:
    • Ensuring access to safe and affordable drinking water
    • Ensuring access to sanitation and hygiene
    • Increasing water use efficiency
• Climate Action
  • The category recognises organisations that have demonstrated innovative, impactful and inspirational solutions producing positive results in the following areas:
    • Climate Adaptation and resilience building
    • Sustainable Land Use and Forest Conservation
    • Nature-based solutions for conserving/restoring ecosystems and natural resources or carbon removal
    • Carbon Capture, Usage and Storage
• Global High Schools 
  • The Global High Schools category recognises high schools or secondary schools, from six global geographic regions that propose innovative, impactful and inspirational sustainability projects in the areas of health, food, energy and/or water. The proposed project could be in one area (e.g. water) or a combination of areas (e.g. health, food, energy, water and climate action). 
  • The Prize is intended to encourage students to develop and implement their sustainability ideas and is not aimed at administrative projects or educational reforms at the school. 
  • The award in this category is not given for past achievements but will enable students from winning high schools to implement sustainability projects in their own schools. These student-led projects must demonstrate innovative approaches to address sustainability challenges and inspire students to take active roles in sustainable development. 
  • The application must be submitted by the students and supported by the school management. The projects must:
    • demonstrate how they meet the three criteria: impact, innovation, inspiration, as explained in the Evaluation Criteria section of this page; 
    • be able to be implemented and operational within one to two years; and 
    • benefit the school community and/or their local/regional community for several years.

Prize Information

• The total prize fund is US $5.9 million, distributed as follows:
  • Health US $1,000,000
  • Food US $1,000,000
  • EnergyUS $1,000,000
  • Water US $1,000,000
  • Climate ActionUS $1,000,000
  • Global High Schools US $900,000
    • Divided amongst six schools; awarding each US $150,000: Regions: The Americas, Europe & Central Asia, Middle East & North Africa, Sub-Saharan Africa, South Asia, East Asia & Pacific

Eligibility Criteria

• Organisations must be a small or medium sized enterprise (SME) or a non-profit organisation (NPO).
• Organisations must also demonstrate a clear vision and long-term plan to further deploy their solution and scale up their impact, as well as inspiring others to follow suit by advancing sustainable and human development.

For more information, visit Zayed Sustainability Prize.