Shell Springboard Awards 2019
Applications are now open for the Shell Springboard Awards, closing at 10am Monday 29th October.
The Shell Springboard programme enables Shell to support the most promising low-carbon and sustainability technologies which have the potential to play an important part in the transition to a lower-carbon world. Shell Springboard has been running since 2005, with more than eight out of ten Shell Springboard-supported companies still being in business five years after starting up, compared to the national average of around 45%. The programme has created 317 new jobs, helped 98 organisations with a combined turnover of said supported businesses exceeding £60 million, and the programme has awarded £3.8 million of funding.
Shell are looking for business ideas that address environmental challenges and lead to direct or indirect carbon savings. Solutions must be innovative, bringing about a step-change in their sector, and be different from what’s already available in the market, while also being commercially viable. The shortlisting of companies will be based on independent screening, technical assessment and telephone interviews: successful companies will meet the judging panels at regional events in February–March 2019 where three regional winners at each event will be awarded £40,000 funding each. The national final will then be contested between six regional winners, with one business being crowned the national winner of Shell Springboard 2019 where they will receive additional funding of £110,000.
Previous winners include Seawater Greenhouses, who use sunlight, wind and seawater to grow crops in arid coastal environments; C-Capture Ltd, whose clean energy technology captures carbon dioxide emissions from different industrial gas streams; and Celtic Renewables, who won for commercialising next generation biofuels using the by-products of biological industries such as converting whiskey distillates into vehicle fuel.