Now in its second year, the University of Wisconsin’s Climate Leadership Challenge is doubling its cash prize allocations to $100,000 to support students’ ideas to address global climate change.

The grand prize this year will be a total of $50,000, with runners-up receiving grants of $10,000 to $15,000, according to Tracey Holloway, director of the Nelson Institute Center for Sustainability and the Global Environment. This funding is provided by a group of donors known as the Global Stewards Society.

“[The winner] will also get a 12-month lease at the Research Park facility for sort of a workspace to get their project going,” CLC project coordinator Keith Cronin said.

This decision was made based on the success of last year’s competition as well as the Nelson Institute’s Center for Sustainability and the Global Environment’s efforts to provide the champions the opportunity to establish a business to promote their solution to the climate crisis, according to Holloway.

“They really wanted to invest enough to get an idea off the ground,” Holloway said. “The goal is to really take an idea that is ready to be put into action and to provide resources to help a student launch a business and get things going.”

Last year, the CLC received 25 submissions, over double the expected amount of competitors. This year, twice as many participants are expected to create climate crisis resolutions ranging from educational programs to energy reducing inventions, Holloway said.

Students who decide to compete must be currently enrolled at UW. They are required to present a formal business plan that describes the economic utility of their intended solution and how they believe it would significantly contribute to the fight against climate change, Cronin said.

Eight finalists are then selected from the group of contenders to make a final presentation April 20 at the Nelson Institute Earth Day Conference. These competitors are then narrowed down to a group of four by a panel of judges who then make the final decision on who wins the set cash prizes, according to Cronin.

“The only overarching theme is that the solutions should really address climate change and that can either be reducing green house gases into the atmosphere, it can be something to deal with land use or it can be dealing with how you reduce the vulnerability of society to climate change,” Holloway said.

There are competitions similar to the CLC across the nation. However, according to Holloway, the innovation program at the UW is the largest environmentally focused competition of it’s kind.

Last year’s grand prize winners developed an approach to create biofuels, with runners-up entries including an environmentally friendly vending machine and a product that transformed garbage into reflective materials for solar cooking and water heating for developing nations, Holloway said.

This year, the CLC has modified its categories for judgment from regional, national and international solutions to most action-ready, most technical innovative solution and most non-technical innovative solution, according to Holloway.