Could your client be the next to win an Earthshot Prize?

The search for the winners of the Earthshot Prize 2023 has begun and CIPA is once again a proud Official Nominator.

Do you have a client that you could nominate for one of the five £1m prizes?

Launched in 2020, The Earthshot Prize is the most prestigious global environment prize in history.

As an Official Nominator, CIPA is one of 350 organisations from across the world invited to submit nominations, selected for our ability to identify the most impactful solutions across all sectors, from grassroots to businesses.

The Earthshot Prize will consider solutions which make tangible progress towards one of the five Earthshots:

• Protect and restore nature
• Clean our air
• Revive our oceans
• Build a waste-free world
• Fix our climate

Nominations must be beyond idea stage, have tested their solution in-field or with target audiences and must be at a ‘tipping point’ for scaling their impact within the next five years. Therefore, the best nominees will likely be close to the end of the patenting process, or already have patents in place.

The winners in each category will each receive a grant of £1m and a package of support to scale their impact.

Winner of the ‘Build a waste-free world’ category at the 2022 awards was one of CIPA’s three nominated finalists, London-based Notpla. Notpla has produced a revolutionary patent-pending solution to replace single-use plastics and packaging. The innovation uses a material that is made from seaweed and is 100% home compostable, formulated to break down like a piece of fruit peel. Notpla aims to save millions of tonnes of plastic products from polluting our oceans, littering our streets and going to landfill every year.

Our other nominated finalists were:

• Low Carbon Materials (Fix our climate category finalist) 
• Lanzatech (Fix our climate finalist) 

Nominations are now open and will close at 23:59 GMT on Tuesday 31st January 2023. We will need your submissions by 5pm, Tuesday, 24 January, 2023, to ensure we have sufficient time to gather any further information that may be necessary and to submit entries.

If you or your firm has a client with a solution that is inspiring, inclusive and impactful, please get in touch with Communications Officer Amy Williams at [email protected] to register your initial interest. Amy will send you a copy of the nomination form which must be completed and returned in order for CIPA to officially submit on your behalf. Amy will be happy to discuss the nominations process and answer any further questions you may have.

CIPA will once again advise the Earthshot organisers on all intellectual property issues. In 2021 and 2022 a team of volunteer Chartered Patent Attorneys led by Jerry Bridge Butler, Chair of CIPA’s Media and PR Committee, performed due diligence checks on the finalists and provided them with any intellectual property advice that they required. If anyone at your firm would like to be involved this year, please contact Jerry at [email protected].

You can find out more about the Prize, our role as an Official Nominator, and the 5-stage process to selecting winners at www.earthshotprize.org.

Date Published: 8 December 2022