The next edition of the Indian Institute of Technology Madras’ Carbon Zero Challenge (CZC) will focus on ‘Resource Depletion and Pollution,’ which has been accelerated by the crises of climate change, pollution, and biodiversity loss.
The CZC 2022 competition, an all-India eco-innovation and entrepreneurship competition, aims to accelerate the lab-to-market transition of eco-innovations in India by funding innovations ranging from proof-of-concept, lab-scale solutions to working prototypes or pilots.
CZC 2022 winners will also receive Rs 10 lakh
Shortlisted teams will receive funding and mentorship to help them establish start-ups and commercialise their ideas. CZC 2022 winners will also receive Rs 10 lakh as a start-up seed grant, as well as ongoing support from IIT Madras, such as access to IITM incubation resources and Angel and VC funding.
According to Asian Development Bank reports, Asia will have more than one billion vehicles by 2035, with the transportation sector responsible for up to 80% of air pollution in Asian cities (ADB). According to the Ministry of Agriculture, Government of India, environmental degradation costs India approximately $80 billion USD per year.
V. Kamakoti, Director of IIT Madras, officially launched the third edition of the Carbon Zero Challenge (CZC) on August 24 at a campus event attended by CZC Principal Coordinator Prof. Indumathi M. Nambi and other stakeholders.
Deadline for submissions
The deadline for submissions is September 24, 2022. The CZC2022 web portal contains information on the competition and the application process.
Addressing the launch event, V. Kamakoti, Director, IIT Madras, said, “Based on experiences gained from previous editions of CZCs and other research initiatives, IIT Madras is going to establish a ‘School of
Sustainability’ that will work towards the UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDG). CZC 2022 is going to give us a feel of challenges and technology needs in the field so that our Research, Course Curriculum
and other activities are targeted towards solving issues in meeting SDGs and the overall direction of this upcoming School of Sustainability.”
Thanking Thales and other supporters of CZC 2022, V. Kamakoti added, “Seed funding is important to convert an idea into a working prototype and support teams through preincubation and incubation.
HomoSEP, which was supported during the earlier editions of CZC, has converted into a product and the third device has been given recently to a family member of a person who was engaged in manual scavenging.”
Further, V. Kamakoti said, “IIT Madras will open up its patenting mechanism to the participants of this contest to get their innovations patented. The Institute also has a strong incubation ecosystem that can help start-ups mature and convert their ideas into a viable business.”
Theme for CZC 2022
CZC 2022’s theme is CZC for ‘CRC’ (or ‘Circularity in Resources Conservation.’ The goal is to emphasise the importance of balancing demand and supply by conserving resources and rethinking design and materials to enable resource reduction, recycling, recovery, and reuse. To achieve this and a low carbon, land footprint, industry and public service systems require non-polluting technology.
Highlighting the key focus areas of CZC 2022, its Principal Coordinator, Indumathi M. Nambi, Faculty, Department of Civil Engineering Department, IIT Madras, said, “CZC 2022 would focus on fostering innovative solutions incorporating circularity and sustainability for managing and conserving the following resources – Air, Water, Soil, Materials, and Energy. The competition will focus its target applicant pool on teams that have already demonstrated and validated lab-scale proof of concept, with a clear technological advancement.”
Further, Indumathi M. Nambi said, “The focus will be on technologies that aid in recovery of resources and pollution mitigation that are not receiving sufficient attention from the investment community. The proposed solutions by teams participating in this competition should have low carbon, water and eco footprint and have a large societal impact.”
The Key Aspects of Carbon Zero Challenge 2022 include:
– Wider Range of Solutions: Solutions to sustainability challenges can be deep technology, a new business model, a new app-based inventory, IT /IOT/AI and data analysis, a new policy intervention, or a combination of the four.
– Faculty-led/Research scientist-led teams: Faculty initiation and involvement are key to sustaining the momentum and continuing the journey to higher TRLs and Incubating Start-ups.
– Focus on Commercialisation of research: CZC will invest in developing the “go-to-market capabilities” of the selected teams and expect the teams to develop their alignment and relevance to the marketplace.
The competition anticipates a healthy mix of applications from academic/research labs as well as early-stage start-ups.
By October 2022, approximately 100 teams are expected to be shortlisted, with 25 teams receiving prototype funding of up to Rs 5 lakh per team.
The teams will also be trained to improve their market orientation and entrepreneurial quotient, as well as to create a sustainability report for their product so that it can be marketed as a clean-tech company. To hone their technical and business skills, the teams will be connected to experts in industry and academia.
