Clima Now Spotlight 2023 FAQs
Welcome to the Clima Now Spotlight Call for Proposals 2023. In this section, we aim to provide comprehensive answers to some frequently asked questions to assist you in your submission process.
What is Clima Now Spotlight?
Spotlight is our community competition. We give your climate ideas a stage and shine the spotlight on them – and you decide which ones!
We believe in young people as champions for the climate within our society and therefore we are dedicating this year’s contest to them. If you or your team members are between 18-35 years, we want to hear from you!
The three first-place projects will receive CHF 175,000 in total: the first receiving a project fund of CHF 100,000, the second CHF 50,000, and the third CHF 25,000. Additionally, an audience prize of CHF 15,000 will be awarded on the night of the Clima Now Spotlight Pitch Night. Projects receiving grant funding commit to participate in the half-year support program (Horizon Program) starting in beginning of 2024. Other participants will have the opportunity to join the mentioned support program on first come – first served basis.
What do we mean by “impactfully design a climate positive FOODprint for Switzerland”?
To design a climate positive FOODprint for Switzerland means to take actions that have a measurable and understandable effect on reducing CO2e emissions in Switzerland. The overall goal is to promote sustainability and mitigate climate change with innovative and practical solutions that can be quantified in terms of their CO2e emission reduction impact.
What do you need to fill out / hand in to participate?
- Project Title (max. 100 characters)
- Project Team (max. 200 characters)
- Summary of your Project: Describe your project in 3-4 sentences (max. 500 characters).
- Who are the people behind your project and what is your background? Introduce the people of your core team and what your individual background is (max. 500 characters).
- How did your idea come into being? Tell us more about the problem you are tackling and how you got inspired to start a project that offers a solution (max. 1000 characters).
- What is your idea to impactfully design a climate positive FOODprint for Switzerland? Tell us more about the solution you want to provide (max. 1000 characters)
- How do you define the positive impact of your solution on the problem described above? Describe how you measure your impact in Switzerland in the first 1-3 years of your project (max. 1000 characters)
- Required budget in CHF
- Upload Mission Model Canvas (PDF only)
- Project Video Upload (max. 2 Mins), Video Thumbnail (Preview Image)
- URL of your project
- Three Project pictures (up to five possible)
- Social Media Profiles
- Name and contact information of the project lead
- Confirmation
How are projects submitted?
Projects are submitted exclusively via the Clima Now Spotlight website. Deadline for submission is 27 July 2023 11:59 a.m. CEST (midday).
Who is eligible to apply? (Formal criteria)
Only legal entities, natural persons capable of acting or natural persons with limited capacity to act who act with the consent of their legal representatives and who are domiciled in Switzerland are eligible as project initiators (individuals, groups, collaborations). The minimum age of project initiators is 18 years.
Formal criteria
- Residence/Age: One Team Member must be between the ages of 18 and 35 years old and the project lead has to currently reside in Switzerland.
- Compliance: The project must not contain any discriminatory or illegal content.
- Data: The application form must be filled out completely, and the video presentation should last no more than 2 minutes. The canvas template must be used and completed in full.
- Impact Focus: The project impact must have a clear focus in Switzerland.
The following projects are not supported:
- Projects that contain discriminatory or illegal content.
- Projects that engage in greenwashing, which means suggesting an environmentally friendly image without a factual basis.
- Projects from political parties or groups.
How does the selection process work?
- Clima Now: Formal Criteria Check
After the submission deadline, Clima Now will verify if each application meets the formal criteria. These criteria are described in the “Who is eligible to apply? (Formal criteria)” section above.
- Jury: Content Criteria Evaluation
All applications that meet the formal criteria will be evaluated by the jury based on the following content criteria:
- Impact: How effective is the project for the climate?
- Scalability: How well can the impact unfold, scale, spread, or multiply?
- Viability: What is the chance that the project will endure and persist after Clima Now funding?
- NOW Factor: Does the solution develop its first impact in just one year?
- Community: To what extent is a community actively involved and activated in the project?
- Food: How well does the project fit into this year’s Spotlight focus topic?
The projects with the highest rating from the jury will be showcased on the “Wall of Fame” and publicly evaluated during the two-weeks public voting period. The seven projects with the most votes will have the opportunity to present themselves on stage at the Spotlight Pitch Night.
Disqualification
Your project disqualifies if neither the project lead nor one team member are not between 18 and 35 years old or any other given information is proven to be untrue.
For Public voting, we expect fair competition. The votes must come from real people. If we find any discrepancies, we reserve the right to delete the project from the Wall of Fame.
Things you need to know when handing in a project
The project lead needs to be the person holding the presentation on the pitch night, signing the grant agreement with Clima Now and participate in the Horizon Program. Make sure to check the timeline and mark the dates of the rehearsal pitch presentation, submission of the slides and the pitch night on your calendar.
What happens if my project wins?
If your project wins firstly, you can celebrate. After the Clima Now Spotlight Pitch Night: Signing of the grant agreement. As of January 2024: Participation in the Horizon Program.
Short description of the Horizon Program
Winners and all finalists get the opportunity to realize their ideas with inputs in the Horizon Program where we partnered up with the Impact Hub Zurich and One Planet Lab Switzerland. Additional places will be allocated on a first come, first serve basis. The support program, called Horizon Program, will kick off in January where administrative information will be distributed. In spring 2024 two boot camps (à one day) will be held on a Friday from 9-17h. The topics are to be defined. Following that, a closing event will be held.
Timeline
| 11 May 2023 | Go-Live Spotlight / Call for Proposals |
| 27 July 2023 | Deadline for project submission at 11:59 a.m. CEST (midday) |
| 28 August 2023 | Communication of Jury decision |
| 1 September – 15 September 2023 | Online voting |
| 22 September 2023 | Results of online voting published |
| 9 – 10 October 2023 | Rehearsal pitch presentation of the 7 finalists (at Clima Now offices or online) |
| 18 October 2023 | Submission of final slides for Pitch Night |
| 26 October 2023 | Spotlight Pitch Night (Kraftwerk) |
| January – May 2024 | Horizon program |