Call for Nominations: Arctic Inspiration Prize (Canada)

Categories

• $1 Million Category
  • The $1 Million Arctic Inspiration Prize category is intended for diverse teams who have provided a truly exceptional and innovative plan to implement knowledge (traditional, scientific research, or practical) into relevant and real action for the benefit of the people and communities of the Canadian North.
• AIP Prize Category
  • The “AIP” category is intended for diverse teams who have provided a truly exceptional and innovative plan to implement knowledge (traditional, scientific research, or practical) into relevant and real action for the benefit of the people and communities of the Canadian North.
• Youth Prize Category
  • The Arctic Inspiration Youth Prize funds and supports youth who have ideas to bring positive change to the North.

Prize Information

• $1 Million Prize Category: One exceptional team can win $1 million
• AIP Prize Category: Up to four teams can win up to $500,000 each
• Youth Prize Category: Up to seven youth teams can win up to $100,000 each

Eligibility Criteria

• Team Diversity
  • The Arctic Inspiration Prize is an award for diverse teams. Individuals alone cannot be nominated. Since the Arctic Inspiration Prize is about teambuilding, nominated teams should be diverse (i.e. include Northerners and Southerners; youth and elders; people from communities, grassroots groups, industry and governments; and/or people from the research, philanthropy, culture, and education communities, etc.). Teams that are not diverse are not eligible.
  • The Team Leader and the majority of the team are required to be Northerners as the Arctic Inspiration Prize is about inspiring Northerners to build, lead and manage their own solutions. A Northerner is defined as:
    • An Indigenous person of the North preferably working and residing in the regions eligible for the AIP; or
    • A non-Indigenous person working and residing in the regions eligible for the AIP
• Novelty
  • The Arctic Inspiration Prize is about inspiring diverse teams to initiate and implement new, innovative, novel projects with real, relevant impacts. Nominations for the continuation, expansion, or replication in another location of an already established initiative are not eligible.
  • Proposed projects should be based upon traditional knowledge, scientific research, and/or practical knowledge (e.g. a small pilot project) in order to be eligible.
• Impact
  • Teams and projects should address opportunities or challenges that are relevant and of importance to the people and communities of the Canadian Arctic. A project can have one or more focus areas, such as, but not limited to: education; health and wellbeing; culture, arts and language; science and traditional knowledge; climate change and the economy.
  • Proposed projects should address the root cause(s) of an Arctic issue, rather than its symptoms. How the project will address the root cause(s) should be clearly outlined in the nomination. For example, a project that aims to prevent oil spills addresses a cause; a project that aims to clean up oil spills addresses a symptom. This applies to all projects – including those of a socioeconomic and human health nature.
• Sustainability and Lasting Impact
  • Proposed projects require buy-in from partners and are encouraged to have buy-in from team members. Buy-in can be in the form of in-kind or cash contributions. Buy-in is required to be at least 20% of the amount requested from the AIP, but cannot exceed the total amount requested from the AIP for example, a project with a total project budget of $400,000 that is requesting $250,000 from the AIP and has $150,000 of buying (60% of the amount requested from the AIP) would be considered strong. Buy-in from partners and team members demonstrates engagement and support for a project and will therefore help to sustain the project beyond its planned duration. It will also help to attract additional funds from AIP Sustainability Partners and others in the long term.
  • Submit the nomination electronically to the Arctic Inspiration Prize office by the deadline. Nominations received after the deadline will not be accepted.

For more information, visit Arctic Inspiration Youth Prize.