Competition Guidelines, Criteria & Prizes

OVERVIEWCOMPETITIONTHOUGHT LEADERSBLOGGET INVOLVED

Guidelines

Eligibility

  • The competition is open to all organizations and partnerships from around the world.
  • Solutions should reflect the theme of the challenge —Nutrients For All: Vitality for People and the Planet—and engage in activities that help ensure the availability of nutrients for healthy natural ecosystems, farms, food, and people.
  • Preference will be given to solutions that have grown beyond the conceptual stage and have demonstrated impact and sustainability.
  • We are accepting your entry in English, Spanish, Portuguese, or French.

Prizes

  • Up to $45,000 in unrestricted funding to boost your project.
  • Early Entry Prize: One of two cash prizes of US $500 and an opportunity to participate in the Ashoka Globalizer conference in Frankfurt, Germany on June 3-4. At the conference, early entry prize winners will have the opportunity to discuss their solutions with Ashoka and a high profile group of executives in attendance. (To be eligible, you must submit your entry prior to the May 15, 2013 early entry prize deadline.)
  • Special Focus Prizes
  • Aberdare Ventures is sponsoring up to $10,000 in funding for U.S.-based ventures.
  • NetSuite.org is pleased to offer theircloud business management software, a $44,000/year value, as a prize to innovators who are ready to scale their social enterprises and take their impact on the nutrient value chain to the next level.

Why You Should Enter

  • A chance to win!
  • Join the movement to create a Nutrients For All world and help solve some of the world’s greatest challenges alongside health practitioners, farmers, industry, policy makers, consumers, environmentalists, social entrepreneurs, food system experts, and others.
  • Shape the emerging Nutrient Economy with your solution and thinking.
  • Connect with AshokaChangemakers’ global online community of innovators and problem-solvers who support the impact you are making on the ground. Your participation in the competition gives you the opportunity to forge relationships with like-minded innovators, impact partners, sector experts, and investors.
  • Gain visibility with our community and the firms and institutions that are partnering with Ashoka in this effort.

How to Enter

  • For advice about how to create a better entry and boost your chances of winning, read thesetipsabout how to make your entry stand out.
  • Please complete the entry form and submit by the deadline: 5 p.m. EST on Wednesday, June 19, 2013.
  • Select entrants will be notified on Monday, July 1 with further instructions.

Criteria

Winners of Nutrients For All: Vitality for People and Planet will be those that best meet the following criteria:

Innovation

The best entries will be those that contribute to a Nutrients for All world by ensuring the availability of nutrients for healthy, natural ecosystems, farms, food, and people. Entries that transcend traditional boundaries and demonstrate a willingness to engage in collaborative partnerships will be given a high ranking by the judges. Innovation does not necessarily involve inventing something entirely new. It may comprise new products or processes, as well as new applications or hybrid combinations of existing tools. Entries should describe how a solution is driven by original, ground-breaking ideas.

Social Impact

Entries must describe what impact their solutions have on the nutrient value chain in order to impact the health of natural ecosystems, farms, food, and people. (Idea phase entries, or entries that have not yet had impact, may describe the projected or potential impact of their solutions.) In addition, entries should articulate how their solutions may impact the broader context of building a Nutrients for All world. Entries should explain how the solution measures impact through both quantitative and qualitative data. The best solutions will have demonstrated impact, as well as the potential for scaling-up and replication, either on their own or in combination with other solutions. Entries are encouraged to describe an important contribution to systemic solutions. This can be either on their own, or in combination with other solutions.

Sustainability

Entries should have a clear plan for reaching long-term goals and securing financial backing—they should describe not only how they currently finance their work, but also how they plan to finance it in the future. They should also have a realistic time frame for implementation. The most successful entrants demonstrate that they have strong partnerships and support networks to address ongoing needs, and to aid in scalability and the maintenance of a clear financial strategy.

Competition Deadlines, Procedures, and Rules

Online competition submissions are accepted until 5 p.m. EST on Wednesday June 19, 2013. At any time before this deadline, competition participants are encouraged to revise their entries based on questions and insights that they receive from reviewers on their feedback dashboards. Participation in the discussion enhances an entrant’s prospects in the competition and gives the community and judges an opportunity to understand the entrant’s project more completely.

There are six main phases in the competition:

Preliminary Entry

Entries can be submitted from April 17, 2013 through 5 p.m. EST on June 19, 2013. Throughout this stage, anyone can participate in an online review discussion with the entrants.

  • Early Entry Deadline, May 15, 2013: Entries received by 5 p.m. EST on May 15, 2012 are eligible for the Early Entry prize.
  • Entry Deadline: June 19, 2013, 5 p.m. EST

Initial Screen of Entries

Beginning June 20, Ashoka will be screening all competition entries for their fit with the judging criteria. Those judged to be most competitive will be invited to a subsequent phase of peer review.

Peer Review for Competition Semi-Finalists

On Monday, July 1, the most competitive entrants - competition Semi-Finalists - will be notified and given the opportunity to review the entries of their peers. Participation in the peer review allows entrants to receive in-depth feedback about their entries from like-minded innovators. Entrants who would like to participate in peer review will need to opt in by July 3. They will then receive their review assignments on Friday, July 5 and have just less than one week to complete those peer reviews.

  • Notification of Peer Review Opportunity: July 1, 2013
  • Deadline to Opt Into Peer Review Process: July 3, 2013
  • Receipt of Peer Review Assignment: July 5, 2013
  • Deadline for Peer Review Assignment: July 10, 2013

Supplementary Entry

On Friday, July 12, all Semi-Finalists will receive access to a supplementary entry form. This form will enable them to elaborate on their work and speak to broader competition themes. Entrants will also receive additional access to their preliminary form, enabling them to incorporate feedback from the peer review process. Both forms can be submitted until Wednesday, July 23 at 5 p.m. EST.

  • Access to Supplementary Entry Form: July 12, 2013
  • Deadline for Supplementary Entry: July 23, 2013 at 5p.m. EST

Online Review and Finalist Selection

July 17 – September 11, 2013: Online review and discussion. A team of Ashoka staff members nominates the 15 to 20 best and most innovative entries as finalists. A panel of expert judges then selects the most innovative entries as the competition winners.

Winners Announced

September 18, 2013: A total of $45,000 in unrestricted funding is available for winning solutions. Winners will also be invited to participate in events that move systemic solutions forward. Special Focus Prize winners will be announced on this same date.

Prizes

Early Entry Prizes

Early entries received by May 15, 2013 will be eligible to win one of two cash prizes of US $500 and an opportunity to discuss their solutions with Ashoka and a high profile group of executives at the Globalizer conference in Frankfurt, Germany on June 3-4. Being an Early Entry Prize winner does not preclude entrants from winning the competition in any way, nor guarantee finalist status. All entries will be evaluated on an equal basis at the completion of the entry period, according to the Changemakers criteria.

Special Focus Prizes

Winners of the Special Focus Prizes will be selected by Ashoka in partnership with the sponsoring institution, and will be announced at the same time as the Grand Prizes. Being a Special Focus Prize winner does not preclude entrants from winning a Grand Prize.

Grand Prizes

A total of $45,000 in unrestricted funding is available for winning solutions. These solutions will be selected from the pool of finalists by expert judges, as those that best exemplify the competition assessment criteria. Winners will be announced September 18, 2013.

Disclaimer—Compliance with Legal Restrictions

Ashoka complies fully with all U.S. laws and regulations, including Office of Foreign Assets Control regulations, export control, and anti-money laundering laws. Any grants will be awarded subject to compliance with such laws. Ashoka will not make any grant if it finds that to do so would be unlawful. This may prohibit awards in certain countries and/or to certain individuals or entities. All recipients will comply with these laws to the extent they are applicable to such recipients. No recipient will take any action that would cause Ashoka to violate any laws. Additionally, Ashoka will not make any grant to a company involved in the promotion of tobacco use.