The Earthshot Prize

Te Herenga Waka – Victoria University of Wellington is proud to be an official nominator for The Earthshot Prize 2026

Te Herenga Waka – Victoria University of Wellington is proud to be an official nominator for The Earthshot Prize to find and grow the solutions that will repair our planet this decade.

The Earthshots

Every year until 2030, The Earthshot Prize Council will award £1 million each to break-through solutions across five separate categories:

  • Protect and Restore Nature
  • Clean our Air
  • Revive our Oceans
  • Build a Waste-Free World
  • Fix our Climate

Criteria

Our review panel will have the tough job of selecting which applications best respond to The Earthshot Prize’s criteria. We will assess applications across five criteria:

  • Relevance—How well does the solution align to the selected Earthshot category and priority areas and does it use any of the cross-cutting enablers?
  • Impact— Will the solution make a significant global impact? Does it also have a positive human impact?
  • Maturity— How developed is the solution? Is it proven and at a stage where The Earthshot Prize will provide the boost needed to scale the solution?
  • Organisation—Does the solution have a solid organisational structure whereby we can trust that if they won The Earthshot prize it would be invested well?
  • Overall—Does the solution have the wow factor? Is it innovative and inspiring?

Nominations

We have now stopped accepting applications from potential nominees for 2026. Please watch this space in October 2026 for applications for nominations for 2027.

Winners and finalists

Previous winners and finalists provide a sense of the type and range of solutions that The Earthshot Prize Council is looking for. It is highly competitive, but for a fantastic reward—the prize money, the exposure, and the support to scale the solution.

One of our nominees – Sea Forest – was a finalist for the 2023 Earthshot Prize, which was recognition of their hard work and the amazing solution the Sea Forest team have developed.  Sea Forest co-founder Sam Elsom says “Earthshot is far more than a prize, but rather a support team to assist us in scaling our solution - it’s been a very worthwhile process.”

Timeline

Our selection panel is presently going through the applications we have received by our deadline of October 28, 2025.  Note that applications have closed for nomination for 2026. We will get in touch shortly with our selected nominees. The nominees will then have until 4 December 2025 to provide the Earthshot Prize administrators with any additional information. In February 2026, the University will issue communication material celebrating the nominations put forward to help raise their profile and build awareness of The Earthshot Prize.