US Agency for International Development (USAID)

Conservation X

Conservation X Labs (CXL) is seeking bold ideas for tech solutions to conservation challenges. Aimed specifically at projects teams that are preparing their first prototype, the Con X Tech prize could provide a $3,500 grant to take your idea from blueprint to reality. CXL is seeking novel and transformative tools and approaches to conserve the world’s biodiversity and end human-induced species extinctions. We want to put these tools in the hands of natural resource managers and conservation agents around the world. We will support ideas that help decision-makers, consumers, and policy makers understand and act on conservation problems. We welcome hardware and software submissions, as well as any impactful solution idea that is enabled by technology and helps achieve a conservation outcome. We believe in radical collaboration, and the strongest solutions and project teams will draw from a handful of disciplines (e.g. behavioral sciences, engineering, computer science, molecular science, economics) and think about the impact, sustainability (financial and environmental) and scalability of their solution from the very beginning. We want to move from merely monitoring changing landscapes and species populations to developing tangible solutions. Funding a working prototype is just the beginning. First round grantees will have the opportunity to enter the prototype of their solution in the second stage of the grant competition, that features $20,000 in awards.

National Inventors Hall of Fame

The Collegiate Inventors Competition was founded in 1990 to encourage and drive innovation and entrepreneurship at the collegiate level. The Competition brings together the nation’s brightest college minds to showcase, recognize, and award their cutting-edge research and discovery. A panel of experts not only judge the Finalists’ entries, but also provide feedback, brainstorming, and encouragement needed to take inventions to the next level of innovation. And contestants compete for cash and prizes, too. In fact, over the last 27 years, with the help of our sponsors, we have awarded over $1 million to 183 of the country’s most innovative collegiate students.