Communication Platform to Connect Vulnerable Communities with Climate Change Solutions

Local communities across the globe will need to adapt to changing climate conditions over the next years and decades. In doing so, they may be facing rising sea levels, public health concerns, water scarcity, floods, heat waves and more extreme weather, among other impacts.

Communities are facing many of these challenges today and there are several databases and initiatives with information about climate local impacts and needs. However, communication gaps often prevent connections between communities and the private sector and policy makers who can help serve and support community needs.

How could communication tools help collect, aggregate, share, and meet these needs? How could stronger connections help drive new local investments and markets for locally-appropriate goods and services in these communities?

We are searching for ideas of innovative communication platforms that will connect information about local community needs to public and private sector organizations that can provide solutions and support. A successful communication platform will establish the tools and incentives for communities and solution providers to identify, prepare for, and adapt to the impacts of climate change.

This is an Ideation Challenge with a guaranteed award for at least one submitted solution.

We are searching for ideas of innovative communication platforms that will facilitate and help drive the following:

• Collectionof data and information about needs in communities facing climate change impacts.
• Aggregationof that local data as market intelligence, showing local and national needs.
• Disseminationand sharing of that market intelligence with public and private sector groups.
• Connections betweenpublic/private groups and local communities to find solutions and support.
• Feedbackloops to add learnings back into the aggregated knowledge database. 

This is an Ideation Challenge, which has the following unique features:

• There is a guaranteed award.  The awards will be paid to the best submission(s) as solely determined by the Seeker. The total payout will be $10,000, with at least one award being no smaller than $5,000 and no award being smaller than $1,000. 
• The Solvers are not required to transfer exclusive intellectual property rights to the Seeker.  Rather, by submitting a proposal, the Solvers grants to the Seeker a royalty-free, perpetual, and non-exclusive license to use any information included in this proposal.

After the Challenge deadline, the Seeker will complete the review process and make a decision with regards to the Winning Solution(s). All Solvers that submitted a proposal will be notified on the status of their submissions; however, no detailed evaluation of individual submissions will be provided. 

The World Resources Institute (www.wri.org) is a global, non-profit, non-partisan think tank that goes beyond research to find practical ways to protect the Earth and improve people’s lives. Since 1982, WRI has worked with governments, companies, and civil society to build solutions to urgent environmental challenges. WRI is presently seeking to pioneer tools, platforms, and projects that establish “next practices” for climate and energy solutions—transformative opportunities that reach far beyond today’s best practices.