Abu Dhabi: The Zayed Future Energy Prize will become the Zayed Sustainability Prize as part of a strategic move to refocus its mandate and to broaden its focus to affect greater humanitarian impact.
Commenting on the prize’s transformation, Dr Sultan Ahmad Al Jaber, Minister of State and director-general of the Zayed Sustainability Prize, said: “Inspired by the vision and legacy of our founding father, Shaikh Zayed Bin Sultan Al Nahyan, the Zayed Future Energy Prize has, for the last decade, been able to positively impact 307 million lives through empowering access to energy, clean water, education, training, advocacy and more.
“In a move to align more closely with the UN Sustainable Development Goals and the UAE’s developing national agenda, going forward the prize will broaden its reach beyond renewable energy, and reward projects and innovative solutions from a wider spectrum of sustainability and human development initiatives,” he added.
Al Jaber also said the prize would also expand its support for young students developing sustainability projects.
“The prize will expand its support of young people through the Global High Schools category, which will now reward youth-driven projects from a greater number of world regions.”
Based on its renewed mission, the prize now has five distinct categories for applicants to choose from: Health, Food, Energy, Water and Global High Schools. These pillars are interconnected and representative of basic needs essential to human survival where innovations will yield progress in sustainable development.
Dr Lamya Fawwaz, director of the Zayed Sustainability Prize, explaining the new categories, said: “The new categories were carefully selected to reflect the most pressing sustainability challenges and offer the greatest socioeconomic impact on the lives of people around the world.
“The Zayed Sustainability Prize will also look to inspire today’s youth to be forward-thinkers and cultivate within them a vested interest in becoming agents of change for sustainable development.”
The Zayed Sustainability Prize will see a three-stage evaluation process, beginning with the due diligence that is conducted by a reputed international research and analysis consultancy. Following this, the shortlisted entries will undergo evaluations by a selection committee to determine the finalists. From these finalists, a jury will select the winners in all five categories, including the winning schools from six world regions.
The winners of the Zayed Sustainability Prize will be announced at the awards ceremony during the opening of the Abu Dhabi Sustainability Week on January 14, 2019.
The Zayed Sustainability Prize is open for submissions with the deadline falling on August 9. More information can be found at www.zayedsustainabilityprize.com
