What is the Big Green Challenge?

NESTA – the National Endowment for Science, Technology and the Arts, works closely with government and is overseen by a Board of Trustees. We have no shareholders and use the interest generated by our endowed funds to support our vision of a vibrant UK leading the world in the application of knowledge, enterprise and creativity.

The Big Green Challenge is one of several experimental, high-impact projects developed by the Innovation Challenges team at NESTA. It is one of the ways we are pioneering new approaches to stimulating innovation around the UK and building a body of evidence about how best to encourage and support innovation.

For more details on NESTA, please visit our website.

We are all affected by climate change and we are all part of communities regardless of age, gender, ability, race or location. This is why we wanted as wide a range of people as possible to take part. So although applications to the Big Green Challenge are now closed, there are lots of other ways you can get involved
We want everyone to show their support, and hopefully be inspired to take action themselves, by following the Finalists’ progress through this website.

Groups and organisations competing in the Big Green Challenge will need to involve and engage their respective communities in developing solutions and in delivering their approaches. If you have a Finalist in your area, why not get in touch and see how you can support their project.
If you are an individual or an organisation who is interested in offering advice, financial or other support to our competitors and to the Big Green Challenge competition, please contact partners@biggreenchallenge.org.uk
We will be publishing case studies, links, tips and stories about the Big Green Challenge on our blog and in our newsletter - so register to keep in touch (follow the login button to register if you haven’t already). And feel free to email us with your own stories and thoughts about the Big Green Challenge and our Competitors.

The Big Green Challenge from NESTA is an active competition. It’s not just about ideas, although good ideas will obviously help. It’s about putting ideas into practice. The Challenge will take place over two years from October 2007 to October 2009.

Stage 1: Deadline 11:59pm, 3 March 2008
Applications have now closed for the Big Green Challenge. We announced Stage 2 competitors in early April. Find out more here.

Stage 2:
Shortlisted groups were asked to submit detailed plans about their approach to implementing, monitoring and demonstrating the reduction of CO2 emissions (and other associated factors) in their community.

From these, our judges decided on ten finalists, who have progressed to the third and final stage.

Stage 3:
The ten finalists now have a year to put their approach into practice and demonstrate the reduction in CO2 emissions, spanning October 2008 to October 2009. To help finalists in this stage, we are providing advice and financial support of £20,000 for each project. During the year, we will be monitoring and assessing how each group is progressing, working closely with our audit team. At the end of the year, we will announce the winner.

More information on what our judges are looking for.

NESTA has committed a £1 million prize fund to reward the finalists who perform best against our criteria. We expect the majority of the prize fund to go to an overall winner, with the remaining prize money distributed to runners-up at the discretion of the judges.