SYDNEY, Australia, Mar. 15, 2017 (Antara/Medianet International-AsiaNet) --
In partnership with Tata Group and Australian Aid (Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade's inovationXchange, DFAT iXc), XPRIZE - the world's leader in designing and operating massive incentive competitions to solve humanity's grand challenges - announces the launch of the Water Abundance XPRIZE (http://water.xprize.org/), a US$1.75 million global competition aimed at alleviating global water scarcity. This prize will incentivise teams to compete and develop new energy-efficient technologies designed to harvest fresh water from the atmosphere.
Aimed at sparking a breakthrough solution to global water shortages, this competition calls on teams from around the world to create a device that extracts a minimum of 2,000 litres of water per day from the atmosphere using 100% renewable energy, at a cost of no more than two cents per litre. The goal of the Water Abundance XPRIZE is to create decentralised access to water, giving people the power to access fresh water whenever and wherever they need it.
"With two thirds of the global population living under water-stressed conditions, there's never been a more crucial time to not only rethink our methods of water consumption but reinvent them," said Zenia Tata, XPRIZE's Executive Director of Global Expansion. "Australians and those in Asia Pacific have battled against the climatic elements since the beginning of time, and we believe there are few other countries in the world with the same level of expertise in identifying innovative approaches to securing and distributing fresh water to areas previously thought of as inaccessible."
In a recent media release
(http://foreignminister.gov.au/releases/Pages/2017/jb_mr_170129.aspx), the Australian Foreign Minister Julie Bishop encouraged innovators in the Indo-Pacific to take on the Water Abundance XPRIZE during a visit to XPRIZE Headquarters in Los Angeles. The Water Abundance XPRIZE is counting on a high level of participation from teams in the region, especially given their experiences of living and working in an unforgiving and often unpredictable climate.
Scientists, social change agents, engineers, academics, entrepreneurs and other creative minds are encouraged to compete as a team or individual. XPRIZE welcomes innovators across all geographies, disciplines and walks of life.
Team registration for the two-year Water Abundance XPRIZE competition closes on Friday, 28 April 2017.
The Water Abundance XPRIZE marks the first time XPRIZE has partnered with the Australian government, signaling XPRIZE's intent to develop stronger links across Australia and the Indo-Pacific.
For more information or to register your interest, visit: http://www.xprize.org and http://water.xprize.org/
ENDS
For more information, please contact:
Kevin Daly / Anna Charisiou
Porter Novelli Melbourne
+61 3 9289 9555
kdaly@porternovelli.com.au / acharisiou@porternovelli.com.au
ABOUT XPRIZE
XPRIZE Foundation is a US registered non-profit organisation, is the global leader in designing and implementing innovative competition models to solve the world's grandest challenges. XPRIZE utilizes a unique combination of gamification, crowd-sourcing, incentive prize theory, and exponential technologies as a formula to make 10x (vs. 10%) impact in the grand challenge domains facing our world. XPRIZE's philosophy is that - under the right circumstances - igniting rapid experimentation from a variety of diverse lenses is the most efficient and effective method to driving exponential impact and solutions to grand challenges. Active competitions include the $30 million Google Lunar XPRIZE, the $20 million NRG COSIA Carbon XPRIZE, the $15M Global Learning XPRIZE, the $10M Qualcomm Tricorder XPRIZE, the $7 million Shell Ocean Discovery XPRIZE, the $7 million Barbara Bush Foundation Adult Literacy XPRIZE, the $5 million IBM Watson AI XPRIZE, the $1.75 million Water Abundance XPRIZE and the $1 million Anu and Naveen Jain Women's Safety XPRIZE. For more information, visit http://www.xprize.org/.
SOURCE: XPRIZE
Reporter: PR Wire
Editor: PR Wire
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