The latest edition of Indian Institute of Technology Madras’ (IIT-Madras) Carbon Zero Challenge (CZC) is focusing on ‘Resource depletion and pollution,’ which has been accelerated by climate change, pollution and biodiversity loss.
CZC 2022, an all-India eco-innovation and entrepreneurship competition, aims to accelerate lab-to-market transition of eco-innovations in India by funding innovations from proof-of-concept, lab-scale solutions to working prototypes or pilots.
Shortlisted teams will get funding and mentorship support to establish start-ups and take their idea to the market through commercialisation. In addition, CZC 2022 winners will get ₹10 lakh as start-up seed grant and continued support from IIT-Madras such as access to IITM incubation resources and Angel and VC funding.
The last date to apply is 24th September 2022. The details of the competition and application procedure can be obtained from CZC2022 web portal — https://czeroc.in, says a release.
The theme for this year is CZC for ‘CRC - Circularity in Resources Conservation.’ The idea is to highlight the need to balance demand and earth’s supply through resource conservation, rethinking design and materials to enable reduction, recycling, recovery and reuse of resources. The industry and public service systems need non-polluting technology to achieve this and low carbon, land footprint.
Around 100 teams are expected to be shortlisted by October 2022, of which 25 teams will be given prototype funding up to ₹s5 lakh per team, the release said.