Category: Competition

The J.M.K. Innovation Prize

Deadline: April 30, 2021 12:00 am

Source: J.M. Kaplan Fund

Description: Seeks to identify, support and elevate innovators who are spearheading transformative early-stage projects in the fields of social justice (buttressing democracy, voter education, and reforms to the criminal justice and immigration systems); the environment (slowing the pace of climate change and mitigating climate impacts); and heritage conservation. Prize is awarded to projects/ideas that: represent a game-changing answer to a clearly identified need; are innovative within one or more of the Fund’s three program areas; demonstrate the potential to develop an actionable pilot/prototype with Prize funding; and hold out the promise to benefit multiple individuals, communities, or sectors through a clearly articulated theory of change.

Award: Up to 10 prizes, each including a cash award of $150,000 over three years, plus $25,000 in technical assistance funds. Awardees also receive guidance through the Fund and its resource network.

Eligibility: Individuals or teams representing non-profit or for-profit organizations are eligible to apply.

Deadline: First round applications due April 30, 2021. Select applicants will be invited to submit a more detailed second-round application in late spring.

All Disciplines Competition External

MIT Solve 2021 Global Challenges

Deadline: June 16, 2021 9:00 am

Source: Massachusetts Institute of Technology

Description: Solve seeks innovative, human-centered, tech-based solutions to Global Challenges. Their definition of “tech-based” is broad: in addition to AI, blockchain, and virtual reality, Solver teams have leveraged a plant-based fiber that absorbs oil spills, biodegradable sanitary pads, and user-friendly mobile. See website for more info on the diverse technologies used by Solver teams. The 2021 Global Challenges are: Antiracist Technology in the U.S.; Digital Inclusion; Equitable Classrooms; Health Security & Pandemics; and Resilient Ecosystems.

Award: Finalists will pitch their solutions to a panel of expert judges and an audience of 400+ leaders at Solve Challenge Finals in September during UN General Assembly Week in NYC. Selected solvers will join a supportive community of social impact leaders, funders, and experts to help advance their innovative work through Solve’s nine-month program; receive mentorship and strategic advice from Solve/MIT networks; attend the Solve at MIT flagship event in May; and receive access to funding. All solutions will receive a $10,000 grant. Additional prizes/funding are available for specific challenges. See website for more info.

Eligibility: Anyone (individuals, teams, organizations), anywhere around the world can submit a solution to Solve’s Global Challenges. Applicants from previous years and current/alumni Solver teams are welcome to apply. However, the proposed solution must be new and not one previously selected by Solve.

Deadline: 12 pm ET, June 16, 2021

Architecture Competition Design External Grant Landscape Architecture Uncategorized

2021 Abbey Mural Prize

Deadline: April 23, 2021 12:00 am

Source: National Academy of Design

Description: The National Academy of Design invites artists, architects, arts and community-based organizations, and other nonprofits to submit applications for the 2021 Abbey Mural Prize, which awards grants to support the commission of public murals in the United States. Building on a tradition of public murals as instruments of social activism, neighborhood revitalization, and community engagement, the Abbey Mural Prize aims to broaden support and recognition of the vital role that murals play in making public space more open and accessible. Grants will be awarded for the creation or restoration of public murals, especially those that promote accessibility, serve local audiences, and inspire community dialogue. The Academy will hold an Abbey Mural Prize Information Session on March 23, 2021.

Award: Grants typically range from $10,000 to $40,000 USD in minimally restricted support for the production and installation of mural(s) on and within public buildings and on buildings owned by charitable institutions.

Eligibility: Applications are open to all artists, architects, designers, as well as arts and community-based organizations and other nonprofits. Project leads must be eighteen years of age or over. Project proposals must be for sites located within the United States, Tribal Nations, and U.S. territories including American Samoa, Guam, the Northern Mariana Islands, Puerto Rico, and the U.S. Virgin Islands. Projects must be public and have start dates before June 30, 2022.

Deadline: April 23, 2021

All Disciplines Competition External

Driving the Human

Deadline: April 9, 2021 2:59 pm

Source: German Federal Ministry for the Environment

Description: From 2020 to 2023, the scientific and artistic collaboration Driving the Human will develop and produce seven tangible prototypes responding to complex contemporary scenarios. The project is jointly led by four partner institutions – acatech – National Academy of Science and Engineering, Forecast, the Karlsruhe University of Arts and Design and ZKM | Center for Art and Media Karlsruhe – and relies on the expert knowledge and skills of their combined networks. Driving the Human invites designers, artists, and other multidisciplinary agents to engage with these knowledge networks and multidisciplinary know-how in order to develop future-proof concepts and test them as prototypes. The seven final prototypes can materialize in different ways: from installations to designed objects, architectural mock-ups to interactive games, video works to performances, and many others. Throughout 2023, the community that Driving the Human brings together will explore diverse phenomena such as the social impact of global warming, energy cycles and technology-driven disruptions, the impact of collective decision making, and contemporary processes of exchanging values and objects. Ultimately, they will create tools that enable new ways of envisioning and inhabiting the world.

Award: After an initial review, 21 proposals will be presented at the Driving the Human event in Berlin in Oct. 2021. These participants receive an artist fee and travel/accommodation. From the 21, seven finalists will be selected to develop their projects with support from Driving Partner institutions. Each participant receives an artist fee and a production budget to realize their prototype. Final prototypes will be presented to the public in Berlin in Dec. 2022.

Eligibility: Anyone may apply. Creative minds from anywhere in the world, working in a variety of disciplines, are invited to submit proposals for eco-social renewal.

Deadline: 11:59 pm CET, April 9, 2021

Building Science Competition External Uncategorized

E-ROBOT (Envelope Retrofit Opportunities for Building Optimization Technologies) Prize

Deadline: May 12, 2021 2:00 pm

Source: National Renewable Energy Laboratory; U.S. Department of Energy

Description: The E-ROBOT Prize is designed to catalyze the development of minimally invasive, low-cost, and holistic building envelope retrofit solutions that make retrofits easier, faster, safer, and more accessible for workers. Competitors participate in two phases that will fast-track efforts to identify, develop, and validate disruptive solutions to meet building industry needs. Phase 1 – Concept and Design: In this phase, teams are expected to present an innovative idea that solves a known industry problem for building envelope retrofits. This phase focuses on proving that the solution solves a critical building envelope need, developing a concept and design, and forming a team capable of achieving success. Up to 10 Phase 1 winners will win $200,000 and will then be eligible to compete in Phase 2. Phase 2 – Build and Validate: Winning competitors from Phase 1 will take their individual components add the other required functionality to create a holistic, and “turnkey,” integrated product offering. In Phase 2, up to four winners will win $500,000.

Award: Phase 1: $200,000 per winning team (up to 10); Phase 2: $500,000 per winning team (up to 4)

Eligibility: Competitors are entrepreneurial individuals or teams legally residing or based in the United States. Competitors can be individuals of one or multiple organizations, students, university faculty members, small business owners, researchers, or anyone with the desire and drive to transform an idea into an impactful solution.

Deadline: 5 pm ET, May 12, 2021

Architecture Competition External

Architecture + Utopia

Deadline: April 9, 2021 2:59 pm

Source: Henning Larsen Foundation

Description: The aim of this open, international competition is to request ideas and images that can revitalize the utopia of architecture. Ideas that, with artistic and poetic power, can inspire a new dimension and a new quality in architecture are sought. The task: Describe in sketches and few words a Utopia, a dream or mood with descents in spatial, architectural particulars. Contributions are to be made in drawing / photo or any pictorial technique including short illuminating texts in either Danish or English. Analyses and theses are not asked for. See website for full details/guidelines.

Award: The prize money of 14,000 Euros will be awarded to the best proposal or proposals, distributed at the discretion of the evaluation committee.

Eligibility: Previously published material will be rejected. Entries from relatives or partners to any of the jurors will not be accepted.

Deadline: 11:59 pm CET, April 9, 2021

Architecture Competition External Landscape Architecture

Low-Rise: Housing Ideas for Los Angeles

Deadline: February 12, 2021 12:00 am

Source: Organized by the Mayor’s Office and Christopher Hawthorne, the Chief Design Officer for the City of Los Angeles, with support from the Los Angeles Department of Water and Power, the James Irvine Foundation, and Citi.

Description: Low-Rise: Housing Ideas for Los Angeles is a $100,000 design challenge asking architects and landscape architects to help imagine appealing and sustainable new models of low-rise, multi-unit housing. The aims of the competition are: to promote housing affordability, new paths to homeownership, and innovative models of sustainable residential architecture; to support emerging architects and excellence in design; to confront historical patterns of racial and environmental injustice in housing policy in Southern California; and to develop healthy models of post-COVID living. Participants may enter in any or all of the following categories: Fourplex, Subdivision, (Re)Distribution, and Corners. See website for more info.

Award: In each category, cash prizes will be awarded as follows, for a total of 12 winning proposals: $10,000 for first place, $3,500 for second place, and $1,500 for third place. Winning proposals will be collected in a publication, featuring complementary critical essays and reflections on the future of housing policy and residential architecture in low-rise Los Angeles, to be made available in 2021.

Eligibility: Advance registration required. To register, email lowrise@lacity.org with the subject line “Low-Rise Design Challenge.” Upon receipt of email, applicants will be sent the full design challenge brief, including detailed submission instructions.

Deadline: Feb. 12, 2021

Architecture Building Science Competition External

The Next EPIC Challenge: Reimagining Affordable Mixed-Use Development in a Carbon-Constrained Future (GFO-20-305)

Deadline: September 10, 2021 5:00 pm

Source: California Energy Commission

Description: The purpose of this solicitation is to fund a design-build competition that will challenge multi-disciplinary project teams to design and build a mixed-use development—using cutting-edge energy technologies, tools and construction practices—that is affordable, equitable, emissions-free and resilient to climate change impacts and extreme weather events. This solicitation will be conducted as a two-phase design-build competition. Up to 12 teams (up to three teams from each of the four regions) will be selected for the Design Phase. Up to four teams (one from each region) will advance to the Build Phase. The CEC may consider adding a third-phase grand prize challenge awarded to the best of the Please see website for the full solicitation.

Award: Up to $12M (divided amongst 12 teams) available for the Design Phase and an additional $36M available for the Build Phase contingent up on approval of the CEC’s 2021-2025 EPIC Investment Plan.

Eligibility: The Concept Application of this solicitation is open to all entities with the exception of local publicly owned electric utilities. Please see solicitation for full eligibility requirements.

Deadline: 5 pm, May 7, 2021