Clima Now Spotlight 2024 FAQs
Welcome to the Clima Now Spotlight Call for Proposals 2024. 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?
With Clima Now Spotlight, we mobilize people at a grassroots level to actively participate in thinking about climate solutions and support them in translating their climate ideas into action.
Once a year, we call for ideas on a specific topic. We give project initiators visibility and mobilize the society and their communities for the climate.
The three first-place projects will receive CHF 90’000 in total: the first receiving a project fund of CHF 50’000, the second CHF 25’000, and the third CHF 10’000. Additionally, an audience prize of CHF 5’000 will be awarded on the Clima Now Spotlight Pitch Night. Projects receiving grant funding commit to participate in the Horizon Program, a bootcamp style support program of three individual days, starting in beginning of 2025. Other participants will have the opportunity to join the mentioned support program on a first come – first served basis.
What do we mean by “making tourism in the Alps future-proof”?
Tourism in the mountains causes a lot of CO2 emissions: ski slopes, winter sport facilities and big hotel chains pollute nature and atmosphere. At the same time, tourism is the strongest and most important economic sector in the alpine regions.
We are looking for innovative ideas that design a tourism for the Swiss Alps drawing a positive picture of the future with a more positive impact on the climate. The goal with Spotlight is to incorporate sustainability and mitigate climate change in Alpine tourism.
What do you need to fill out / hand in to participate?
- Project Title (max. 100 characters)
- Project Team (Names & Functions, max. 200 characters)
- Summary of your Project: Describe your project in 3-4 sentences (max. 500 characters).
- What issue does your project address, and why do you want to tackle it? Tell us more about the problem you are tackling and how you got inspired to start a project that offers a solution (max. 500 characters).
- What is your project about and how does it make tourism in the Alps future-proof? Tell us more about the solution you want to provide (max. 500 characters).
- How do you measure your project’s success? Describe the goal of your project and how you will determine when it has been achieved (max. 500 characters).
- Who are the people behind the project and what is your secret to a great collaboration? Introduce the people of the core team, your individual backgrounds and why you make a great team (max. 500 characters).
- Required budget in CHF
- Upload Mission Model Canvas (PDF only)
- Project Video Upload (max. 2 Mins, 16:9), 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
How are projects submitted?
Projects are submitted exclusively via the Clima Now Spotlight website. Deadline for submission is July 5, 2024, 11:59 a.m. CEST (midday).
Who is eligible to apply?
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 are eligible as project initiators (individuals, groups, collaborations). Project initiators must be domiciled in Switzerland or their project must have a clear scope for the Swiss Alps. The minimum age of project initiators is 18 years.
Spotlight is our community contest driving societal change towards more climate action. We strive to ensure diversity and inclusivity by welcoming projects from all segments of society, regardless of gender, race, or background. We account for that in our decision-making since we believe that diverse teams are stronger teams.
Formal criteria
- 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 positive, significant and robust impact on the Swiss mountain region.
- Practicability: The project must be implemented in the following year.
- Bottom-up approach: We want to kickstart ideas on a grassroot level that are well thought out. We do endorse startup concepts, but they must be in their early stages with no substantial external funding by external investors raised so far. We also do endorse existing projects, it must be clear what the prize money will be used for and how this will help you to survive in the longer term.
- Our content focus is on ideas for climate-conscious tourism in the Swiss Alps. This includes for example:
- Proposals with a climate-strategic approach to tourism and related activities
- Ideas that aim to help tourists to make the climate-conscious choice (from mobility to revamping infrastructures, services and activities)
- Innovations that promote the path to net-zero in the Alpine region through the interest of visitors
- Solutions and services for climate-neutral tourism
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.
- Our content focus is on ideas for climate-conscious tourism in the Swiss Alps. This does not include:
- Awareness campaigns with no tangible impact
- Energy-efficient solutions that do not regard tourism
- Mobility projects outside the mountain region
- Agricultural or culinary projects
How does the selection process work?
- Timeline
May 6 – July 5, 2024, 11:59am CEST: Application period
Project selection by Spotlight Jury for “Wall of Fame”
August 26th, 2024: Communication to project leaders regarding the “Wall of Fame” selection
September 2 – 16, 2024: Public Voting (closes at 11:59 am CEST)
Evaluation Public Voting
September 30, 2024: Announcement Spotlight Finalists
October 7 – 11, 2024: Rehearsal Pitch Presentations (online)
October 17, 2024: Submission of Slides for Pitch Night
October 24, 2024: Pitch Night at Kraftwerk, Zurich
Post-event: Signing grant agreement with Clima Now - 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?
- Relevance & Practicability: Is the project necessary and feasible in the Swiss Alpine region?
- 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?
- Money impact: what does the prize money bring them?
- 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?
- Thematic fit: How well does the project fit into this year’s Spotlight focus of Alpine tourism?
The 20-30 projects with the highest rating from the jury will be showcased on the “Wall of Fame” on the Clima Now website. Your project will be displayed with the information you provided by filling out the form. All projects on the Wall of Fame are 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
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.
What can I win?
All projects on the Wall of Fame become part of the Spotlight Alumni Community, which is invited to various happenings after the event. Also are all invited to participate in the Horizon Program (places limited, first come first serve basis).
The projects that win prize money, sign the grant agreement after the Clima Now Spotlight Pitch Night and are automatically part of the Horizon Program, that starts in January 2025.
During the support period, the winning projects try to provide insights into their milestones thanks to the support of Clima Now Spotlight and are available to Clima Now for their communication.
Short description of the Horizon Program
Winners and participants 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 2025 two or three boot camps (à one day) will be held on a Friday from 9-17h. The topics are to be defined.
Important Dates
| 6 May 2024 | Go-Live Spotlight / Call for Proposals |
| 5 July 2024 | Deadline for Project Submission at 11:59 a.m. CEST (midday) |
| 26 August 2024 | Communication to Project Leads of Jury Decision who is on the Wall of Fame |
| 2 September – 16 September 2024 | Online Voting |
| 30 September 2024 | Results of Online Voting published |
| 7 – 11 October 2024 | Rehearsal Pitch Presentation of the 7 Finalists (online) |
| 17 October 2024 | Submission of final slides for Pitch Night |
| 24 October 2024 | Spotlight Pitch Night (Kraftwerk) |
| January – March 2025 | Horizon Program |