The Elsevier Foundation - "Chemistry for Climate Action Challenge" 2025

The Chemistry for Climate Action Challenge is one of the Elsevier Foundation’s flagship partnerships. Together with Elsevier’s Chemistry journals, the Elsevier Foundation provides funding of 25,000 USD for 2 winning projects per year, implementing green & sustainable chemistry solutions in the Global South – advancing both Climate Action (SDG 13) and Gender Equity (SDG 5).

Projects will be reviewed according to the following criteria:

• The proposal clearly describes the urgency of the problem. Provide a description of the project background and include a description of the broader context and highlight how the project links to the United Nation Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), and more particularly how the project links to SDG13 Climate Action and the sub-targets of this SDG such as: strengthening resilience to climate-related hazards, improve education and awareness, address the needs of developing countries. Additionally, describe if and how the project interlinks with other SDGs (e.g. SDG3 Good Health and Well-being, SDG5 Gender Equality, SDG15 Life on Land, etc.), resulting in co-benefits.
• The project utilizes innovative green and sustainable chemistry and chemical sciences approach, for example:
• CO2 reduction and utilization, cleaner production, energy conversion and storage Reduces or eliminates the use or generation of one or more hazardous substances or materials
• More sustainable use of resources and cleaner low-energy production o Increase reuse or recyclability of chemicals/product
• Designs a new business model related to circular economy.
• The project is replicable, scalable, sustainable (make sure to specify why), and sets a benchmark for innovation – new ideas or concepts in development will be given preference over more advanced projects.
• The proposal highlights the novelty of your approach and gives a short literature overview of what has been done before, both by you and others (“background”).
• The project is applicable in and suitable for developing countries. Describe the project’s social impact on local communities, including gender equality either in design or implementation.
• The project must have an impactful gender component, clearly describing the sex/gender dimensions of the research. To know more about best practices in designing and implementing sex/gender components into chemical sciences-related projects, please refer to the ‘Gender Road Map: Short guidance for a gender- responsive national chemicals policy’, developed by the MSP Institute.

• Another helpful reference is ‘Toolkit for Integrating Gender-Sensitive Approach into Research and Teaching’, developed by GARCIA in collaboration with a number of universities (i.e., Radbound University, University of Trento, Université Catholique de Louvain etc.). Additionally, Gendered Innovations (Stanford University) provides practical methods of sex, gender and intersectional analysis for scientists – and offers case studies as concrete illustrations of how this analysis leads to innovation.

• Include an implementation plan of the project. Please note that if the project has been developed in a high-income country, contextually appropriate knowledge transfer to the lower income country is needed to be demonstrated, for instance through a developing country implementation or research partner(s). If the idea presented is already patented, it will not be eligible.

The Elsevier Foundation Chemistry for Climate Action Challenge awards 2 prizes of €25,000 each.

The Challenge award projects that use green and sustainable chemistry solutions to tackle some of the developing world’s greatest sustainability challenges – encouraging researchers to come up with new solutions.