Innovation Challenges

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Challenge Owner(s) Temasek Foundation
Organiser(s)
Temasek Foundation, Eco-Business
Industry Type(s)
Agri-tech, Circular Economy & Sustainability, Food Manufacturing, Sustainable Energy
Opportunities and Support Stand a chance to win up to S$ 1 million in grant funding for project development, among other opportunities
Application Start Date 14 January 2022
Application End Date 13 April 2022
Website Click here to learn more

About Challenge

The Liveability Challenge is back on a search for innovative solutions to combat urban challenges of the 21st century! As the world’s population is expected to increase to 10 billion by 2050, current infrastructure and resources are straining to catch up. How can we live sustainably and within our planetary boundaries?

From 14 January to 1 April 2022, submit your ideas to vie for the grand prize of up to S$1 million in grant funding for project development, among other opportunities!

Be part of The Liveability Challenge, submit your solution today.

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Challenge Owner(s)Temasek Foundation
Industry Types(s)
Circular Economy & Sustainability, Sustainable Energy

Temasek Foundation

The current rate of reduction of carbon emissions is insufficient to meet our climate goals. To accelerate the transition to a net zero future, there is an urgent need for breakthrough innovations in the drastic reduction or removal of carbon emissions from the atmosphere. We are looking for disruptive innovations that can capture and utilise carbon to create scalable products for global markets, as well as solutions that can capture and store carbon at scale. We also want solutions that produce hydrogen at low cost; or solutions that revolutionise the hydrogen economy.

What We Are Looking For

Submitted solutions should:

  • Significantly reduce the carbon emissions produced by industries; or effectively capture, and convert carbon emissions into useful products such as food protein, building materials, reclamation sand or synthetic fuels 
  • Be technology-based solutions (e.g. physical, chemical) 
  • Conduct the pilot in Singapore and integrate into its existing infrastructure
  • Be carbon negative in the overall lifecycle and have zero/minimal externalities
  • Be scalable and commercially viable
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Challenge Owner(s)Temasek Foundation
Industry Types(s)
Agri-tech, Food Manufacturing

Temasek Foundation

The world’s population is projected to increase to 10 billion by 2050, with demand for food predicted to spike by 56%. One third of the world’s food is wasted each year, and the sector is responsible for between 21% to 37% of human-induced carbon emissions. Meanwhile, obesity or undernutrition affect over 2.3 billion people in the world today and Covid-19 has also highlighted the possible transmission of pathogens through food.

In response to this challenging landscape, we are looking for novel plant-based proteins or alternative foods that can increase production drastically to meet global food demand while maintaining a low carbon footprint. Equally desired are disruptive solutions that dramatically reduce food waste such as upcycling waste streams. Other sought-after solutions are new foods that provide healthier alternatives for consumers.

What We Are Looking For

Submitted solutions should:

  • Produce novel foods with improved nutritional quality without compromise on taste and texture
  • Deliver breakthroughs in food production over current methods of production
  • Minimise resource requirements for production and waste outputs (e.g.through circularity of materials)
  • Enhance food safety and quality
  • Be commercially viable and scalable in a dense urban environment

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Challenge Owner(s)Temasek Foundation
Industry Types(s)Circular Economy & Sustainability

Temasek Foundation

Carbon dioxide levels in the atmosphere are almost 50% higher than when the industrial age began. Amid the global urgency to decarbonize our economies, nature-based solutions (NBS) have emerged as a key pathway to achieve climate goals. According to The Nature Conservancy, NBS can provide up to 37% of the emissions reductions needed by 2030 to keep global warming under 2°C. Beyond acting as carbon sinks, nature-based solutions also provide other benefits such as improving air quality, protecting biodiversity and providing livelihoods for local communities.

Southeast Asia plays an important role in this sector as it accounts for 20 to 25% of the global supply of Nature-Based Solutions and boasts the world’s largest blue carbon stock due to its mangrove swamps and seagrass meadows. Yet, its forests are also hotspots for deforestation and biodiversity loss and they need urgent monitoring and management.

We are looking for innovative business models that can conserve and restore tropical forests or coastal ecosystems within Southeast Asia. We are also searching for disruptive solutions that are able to support the creation of verified carbon credits and address gaps in the growing carbon credit markets.

What We Are Looking For

Submitted solutions should:

  • Create value from the conservation or restoration of natural ecosystems in Southeast Asia (e.g. peatland, seagrasses, mangroves) through business models; or improve measurement, reporting, and verification of environmental, social, and economic impacts of NBS (e.g. carbon sequestration, co-benefits)
  • Have a pilot in Southeast Asia
  • Improve the livelihoods of local communities
  • Secure the support of local government stakeholders
  • Be scalable and commercially viable (including establishing off-takers for crops/products of smallholder farming communities)
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