Applications are now open for the UNICEF Climate Innovation Challenge 2025
Applications are now open for the UNICEF Climate Innovation Challenge 2025. A call to early and growth stage frontier tech start-ups in emerging economies. The UNICEF Venture Fund promotes diversity, inclusion, and frontier technology innovation by supporting early and growth-stage startups that leverage artificial intelligence (AI), machine learning, data science, blockchain, and other cutting-edge technologies. The Fund prioritizes solutions that directly improve the lives of children.
As climate change accelerates, children and communities face rising risks from extreme heat, floods, droughts, and air pollution, threatening access to healthcare, safe water, and education. The Climate Innovation Challenge 2025 aims to identify, recognize, and support innovators developing scalable solutions to protect children’s health and build the long-term resilience of the systems they rely on.
Approach to Child-Centric Climate Innovation
Recognizing the multidimensional threats climate change poses to children, UNICEF is focusing innovation efforts in two key areas:
Area 1: Climate and Health
Innovations in this area focus on protecting children from climate-related health risks. Examples include:
- Tools for air quality monitoring to reduce respiratory illnesses in children.
- Solutions to detect, prevent, and mitigate lead exposure in air, water, soil, and food.
- Digital platforms for community engagement and reporting climate-related health issues.
- Integrated systems combining climate and health data, leveraging AI and geospatial technologies to predict and manage risks.
- Platforms to support frontline health workers and community leaders in interpreting and responding to climate-health data.
- Solutions addressing climate-sensitive infectious diseases, including water-borne (cholera), vector-borne (malaria), food-borne, and soil-borne infections, as well as antimicrobial resistance linked to climate change.
- Smart heat and humidity monitoring systems for critical environments like homes, schools, and health facilities.
- Low-cost cooling technologies to protect children in schools, homes, and clinics.
Area 2: Climate Adaptation, Resilience, and Disaster Risk Management
Innovations in this area leverage AI, data-driven systems, and frontier technologies to predict, detect, and mitigate climate risks:
- Community-level early warning systems and predictive platforms for emergency response.
- Scenario modeling using frontier technology for climate-related risks.
- Blockchain-based verification of climate events and service delivery.
- Tools for anticipatory action, integrating climate hazards with social and health datasets for resilient infrastructure planning.
- Parametric insurance platforms and innovative financing mechanisms providing rapid protection for children and communities.
- Blockchain-enabled solutions to increase energy resilience, including financing for renewable or clean energy alternatives.
- Community energy networks supporting clean water systems and food storage, including peer-to-peer energy trading.
About the Climate Innovation Challenge
UNICEF, in collaboration with the India Health Fund (IHF) and the Cambridge Institute for Sustainability Leadership (CISL), is calling for solutions from emerging markets. The challenge supports both early-stage frontier tech startups and the scaling of proven climate adaptation solutions, fostering long-term sustainability.
UNICEF also invites value-aligned partners to support innovation challenges, design sprints, and provide strategic technical assistance to enhance equity and trust across technological solutions.
Through this challenge, UNICEF aims to:
- Map child-centric climate innovators across emerging markets.
- Provide mentorship and technical assistance from UNICEF Venture Fund experts to selected startups, enhancing investment readiness. This includes:
- 10 hours of technical mentoring in open-source software, business development, frontier technology, and diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI).
- Support to navigate the UNICEF Venture Fund selection process.
- Highlight investable solutions that provide public good while demonstrating market potential.
Selection Focus and Eligibility Criteria
The UNICEF Venture Fund seeks solutions that:
- Address challenges that accelerate positive results for children.
- Are optimized for low-resource environments (e.g., low connectivity or limited mobile access).
- Reduce inequalities and deliver results for diverse communities.
- Support multiple languages, including local and underrepresented languages.
Mandatory requirements for applicants:
- Registered as a private for-profit company.
- Registered in a UNICEF programme country (eligible countries list).
- Have a working prototype or minimum viable product (MVP) demonstrating promising results.
- Be open-source or willing to make the solution open-source.
- Have the potential to positively impact the lives of vulnerable children.
- Generate measurable, publicly exposed real-time data.
Program Benefits
Selected startups will receive:
- Flexible Funding: Financial support to scale innovative solutions.
- Technical Assistance: Expert guidance to refine and implement solutions effectively.
- Global Exposure: Increased visibility through UNICEF’s extensive network.
- Open-Source Collaboration: Opportunity to contribute to and benefit from a global pool of innovations.
- Impact Measurement: Tools and support to assess and enhance the impact on children’s well-being.
These benefits are designed to empower startups to develop and deploy solutions that directly improve the lives of vulnerable children and communities.
Eligibility Criteria
To be eligible for the UNICEF Climate Innovation Challenge 2025, applicants must:
- Be a private for-profit company registered in a UNICEF programme country.
- Have a working prototype or minimum viable product (MVP) of the proposed solution, demonstrating promising results.
- Ensure the solution is open-source or willing to be open-source.
- Develop solutions that positively impact the lives of vulnerable children.
- Generate publicly exposed real-time data that is measurable.
Startups should focus on areas such as climate and health, education, water and sanitation, and disaster resilience, aiming to address the specific needs of children in these sectors.
How to Apply
Interested startups can apply through the UNICEF Innovation Office. The application process involves:
- Expression of Interest: Submit an initial application detailing the startup’s mission, the problem being addressed, and the proposed solution.
- Proposal Development: If shortlisted, develop a comprehensive proposal outlining the technical, financial, and operational aspects of the solution.
- For more details visit the official page
- Selection Process: UNICEF will evaluate proposals based on criteria such as innovation, scalability, impact, and sustainability.
- Partnership Agreement: Successful applicants will enter into a partnership agreement with UNICEF to implement and scale the solution
- Deadline to apply: 21 October 2025
