UNDP Ocean Innovation Challenge 2020 (Grant upto 250,000 USD)

The Ocean Innovation Challenge (OIC) is a unique new mechanism that has been designed to accelerate progress on SDG14 by the identifying, financing, advising and mentoring of truly innovative, entrepreneurial and creative approaches to the ocean and coastal restoration and protection that sustains livelihoods and advances the ’blue economy’. The OIC seeks innovations that are transferable, replicable and scalable in order to achieve maximum catalytic impact.

The goal of the OIC is to accelerate progress on SDG14 by catalyzing replicable and scalable innovations – including technical, policy, economic and financial – that can be sustained and contribute directly to the delivery of one or more SDG14 targets. “Innovation” here can include both truly new approaches or the transferor adaptation of existing proven approaches to new contexts and/or locales.

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The Ocean Innovation Challenge is issuing a series of ‘Ocean Challenges’ or Requests for Proposals, each focused on a specific SDG14 target. Initial concepts may be submitted by public or private entities, including governments, private companies (including start-ups), NGO/CSO, United Nations entities, academic institutions, and intergovernmental organizations.

The ocean faces unprecedented threats to the ecosystem goods and services it provides to humanity, from climate regulation to food security to energy resources. Despite some progress, many ocean challenges, from nutrient pollution to illegal, unregulated and unreported IUU fishing to ocean acidification, continue to worsen.

SDG 14, which aims to conserve and sustainably use the oceans, seas and marine resources for sustainable development, sets forth a very ambitious agenda for oceans restoration and protection. For most sectors that use and impact on the ocean, from fisheries to aquaculture to industrial agriculture, the `business as usual` scenario will not deliver the kinds of transformational change needed to move towards truly sustainable ocean use.

A combination of technical innovation and cutting-edge policy, financial and economic incentives are needed to transform ocean-related sectors, both sea-based and land-based. At present, while there are a handful of relevant initiatives, these are limited in their sectoral scope. Solutions have required that cut across the unique innovation needs of each SDG14 target, whether it be the reduction of plastics pollution, eliminating overfishing, or enhancing access for small scale fishers. The OIC seeks to identify and provide support to scale-up these solutions.