The Innovation Challenge Hub
WHERE CLEANTECH ENTREPRENEURS MEET OPPORTUNITIES

What Will You Do Next?

Looking to develop, pilot, or scale your innovation? Take advantage of the myriad of opportunities provided by Innovation Challenges for which corporates, investors, accelerators, and governments are recruiting.

Cleantech Group helps innovators by sharing live (and expired) challenges that have captured our attention from our daily work engaging with the global cleantech ecosystem. The Innovation Challenge Hub is a useful resource to keep coming back to.

Cleantech Group is an active partner on these challenges:

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Innovation Challenges

You can search and filter through challenges by typing in the search field or by using the dropdowns below.

Click here to view past challenges.

  • Sectors

Innovate UK KTN

Deadline: May 8, 2024
Innovation Exchange challenge: Developing a process to effectively reclaim and recycle silicone from used HealthTech and medical devices
Seeking innovators who can provide a solution to reclaim and...

Seeking innovators who can provide a solution to reclaim and recycle silicone from used HealthTech and medical devices in an efficient and effective manner.

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Innovate UK KTN

Deadline: May 8, 2024
Innovation Exchange challenge: scaling up Direct Air Capture
Carbonbit seeks to identify process, mechanical and electric...

Carbonbit seeks to identify process, mechanical and electrical engineering modifications to scale-up a small-scale DAC system to industrial scale.

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Innovate UK KTN

Deadline: May 10, 2024
Innovation Exchange: Towards Net Zero Fibre Bottle Challenge
The Net Zero Catalyst is supporting Pulpex to find a provide...

The Net Zero Catalyst is supporting Pulpex to find a provider to analyse recycled paper fibre and alternative biomass sources for a fibre bottle moulding process.

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Innovate UK KTN

Deadline: May 10, 2024
Innovation Exchange challenge: Modular Hydrogel Reactors for Sustainable Horticulture: A Peat Alternative
The Net Zero Catalyst Fund seeks a solution provider to desi...

The Net Zero Catalyst Fund seeks a solution provider to design, manufacture, and deploy a pilot-scale hydrogel reactor system.

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U.S. Department of Energy

Deadline: May 15, 2024
Voluntary Carbon Dioxide Removal Purchasing Challenge
The Challenge Will Unlock Game-Changing Capital Supporting H...

The Challenge Will Unlock Game-Changing Capital Supporting High-Quality Carbon Dioxide Removal to Meet Climate Goals

The U.S. Department of Energy’s (DOE) Office of Fossil Energy and Carbon Management (FECM) today issued a notice of intent (NOI) to launch a Voluntary Carbon Dioxide Removal Purchasing Challenge (“Challenge”). The Challenge will call on external organizations to join DOE in purchasing high-quality carbon dioxide removal credits, following the Department’s recent commitment to procure $35M through the Carbon Dioxide Removal Purchase Pilot Prize. The Challenge’s innovative public-private partnership structure aims to catalyze carbon dioxide removal credit purchases and improve transparency of the carbon dioxide removal credit supply. This effort supports the Biden-Harris Administration’s climate goal of achieving net-zero emissions by 2050, as well as the goals of DOE’s Carbon Negative Shot, which aims to reduce the cost of removing carbon dioxide from the atmosphere to less than $100 per net metric ton of carbon dioxide-equivalent by 2032, together with robust monitoring, reporting, and verification and secure storage. The Challenge comes during a decisive decade where removals projects must move rapidly to full commercial scale to meet climate goals in coming decades.

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VITO

Deadline: May 19, 2024
Vito4Starters
All European starters with a project or concept that focuses...

All European starters with a project or concept that focuses on sustainability can register for VITO4STARTERS. Do you have an idea to make materials or processes more circular? Have you developed a process that reduces CO2 emissions or uses less water? Or have you developed an intelligent or efficient energy system? If so, VITO4STARTERS is the ideal programme for letting these ideas grow

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East Ventures and Temasek Foundation

Deadline: June 4, 2024
Climate Impact Innovations Challenge
Climate Impact Innovations Challenge (CIIC) is Indonesia’s l...

Climate Impact Innovations Challenge (CIIC) is Indonesia’s largest climate innovations tech competition. Debuted in 2023, CIIC provides a platform for tech innovators to showcase their sustainable innovations in addressing ecological challenges and mitigating the impacts of climate change.

CIIC 2024 provides the platform for teams to compete in three tracks for a total prize pool of Rp 10 billion to pilot their solutions within Indonesia.

Only teams that have created a prototype or a minimum viable product with the intention of commercialization are eligible to apply.

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Innovate UK

Deadline: March 1, 2025
Faraday Battery Challenge
The Faraday Battery Challenge will support UK registered Sma...

The Faraday Battery Challenge will support UK registered Small, Micro and Medium-sized, businesses only to apply for a share of up to £1.5 million to increase and facilitate their engagement with the UK Battery Industrialisation Centre. An extension was granted in 2022, so that the challenge now ends in March 2025.

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Sustainable Ventures

Ongoing
Innovation Challenge: Lambeth
Sustainable Ventures is launching a competition to help SMES...

Sustainable Ventures is launching a competition to help SMES & Established Businesses solve their net zero challenges and Innovators scale their solutions particularly in low carbon buildings, waste management, behavior change, and low carbon mobility.

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Imagine H2O Asia

Ongoing
Pilot Funding & Scale Up Support
Asia-Pacific water challenges that are addressed by entrepre...

Asia-Pacific water challenges that are addressed by entrepreneurs receive pilot funding and scale up support with partners.

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Plug-and-Play

Ongoing
Mobility Accelerator
Autonomous vehicles, connectivity, electrification, smart ci...

Autonomous vehicles, connectivity, electrification, smart cities.

Rolling applications year round. Stage-agnostic.

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EcoLabs

Ongoing
EcoLabs-Continental Urban Mobility Accelerator
Spanning urban mobility, electrification, energy efficiency,...

Spanning urban mobility, electrification, energy efficiency, and sustainable transport.

Open to applicants in all regions/continents.

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EVA

Ongoing
Electric Vehicle Accelerator
Charging infrastructure, EV fleets, services supporting elec...

Charging infrastructure, EV fleets, services supporting electric mobility.

Announced in April 2022. Open to companies located beyond Singapore.

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Get our Guides to Successful Innovation and Put Your Company Ahead of the Rest

Fast Guide to Successful Innovation Part One: How to Smash the Innovation Challenge Application

How much information should you share? What's essential? Optional? Part One of our Fast Guide to Successful Innovation zeroes in on what you need to do to connect with the decision makers in all the right ways.

Fast Guide to Successful Innovation Part Two: Pitching a Cleantech Company - Your Checklist for Success

Selling your idea or product to new audience can be as daunting as it is exciting. Our checklist takes you through a plan for getting the the best possible outcome.

Fast Guide to Successful Innovation Part Three: How to Get the Most from your Corporate Cleantech Partner

Understanding your potential new partner's requirements, and even their language, will help you benefit from the process, manage your feedback and respond with useful information.

Get the Guide

Insights to Support Your Progress

05/02/2024

The Green Hydrogen Conundrum – Maritime Decarbonization Edition

Hard-to-abate sectors (heavy industry, steel, aviation) are increasingly turning to hydrogen to realize decarbonization goals, and maritime ...

By Nicole Cerulli

About Cleantech Group

At Cleantech Group, we provide research, consulting and events to catalyze opportunities for sustainable growth powered by innovation. We bring clients access to the trends, companies and people shaping the future and the customized advice and support businesses need to engage external innovation.

Industries are undergoing definitive transitions toward a more digitized, de-carbonized and resource-efficient industrial future. At every stage from initial strategy to final deals, our services bring corporate change makers, investors, governments and stakeholders from across the ecosystem, the support they need to thrive in this fast-arriving and uncertain future.

The company was established in 2002 and is headquartered in San Francisco with with offices in Asia, Europe and North America.

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