Apply Now: 2025 Youth Innovation Challenge: Advancing Marine Conservation

The Youth Innovation Challenge invites applicants from 15 to 30 years of age to propose a solution to address marine issues,
including conservation, biodiversity, and marine debris. Solutions can incorporate a variety of approaches but must include
environmental education. Solutions must be innovative, feasible, and informed by research.

The Youth Innovation Challenge is a program of the Global Environmental Education Partnership (GEEP) in partnership with the Taiwan Ocean Conservation Administration (OCA). GEEP is a partnership between the US Environmental Protection Agency, the Taiwan Ministry of Environment, and the North American Association for Environmental Education.

Proposed solutions should use environmental education (EE) as a key strategy. EE provides the skills, values, attitudes, and behaviors that
encourage individuals and groups to be thoughtful and engaged changemakers. As a key part of your solution, EE can help ensure
that solutions are focused on empowering long-term change within a community.

An innovative solution could include applying an existing tool or approach in a new context, such as adapting an existing approach
to a new environmental issue, audience, or scale. Or, a solution could involve something completely new! We encourage you to think
creatively about the problem you want to solve, the steps you propose to take, and who you will work with to achieve your goal.

Proposed solutions should also be feasible and address an unmet community need at any scale. Your target community could be
geographic, such as your neighborhood, city, or country, or tied to shared interests, such as a school or a professional community.
Your solution should consider the needs and characteristics of your community.

Finally, proposed solutions should consider the complex social, economic, and/or environmental dynamics of your targeted marine
issue through informed research and evidence from credible sources.

This background research should demonstrate how your solution is relevant to the audience you are hoping to reach and will help us
understand your knowledge of the issue(s).

Benefits – Youth Innovation Challenge: Advancing Marine Conservation

All eligible proposals will be evaluated by a panel of experts working at the intersection of environmental education, community engagement,
and marine conservation. A total of 15 YIC finalists will be selected and will receive the following benefits: :
• An official YIC finalist certificate
• Recognition through GEEP, NAAEE, and other global partners’ websites and social media pages

We will select 3 winners from the 15 YIC finalists. Each winner will receive a $1,000 USD prize, in addition to all the benefits listed above, and will be
invited to attend the YIC award ceremony in Taipei, Taiwan in October 2025 (all travel expenses covered).

Eligibility – Youth Innovation Challenge: Advancing Marine Conservation

The Youth Innovation Challenge is intended for young leaders and innovators aged 15–30. Your innovative solutions must provide a solution
to one of the following key areas, using environmental education as a key component:
• Marine biodiversity and conservation: Managing, protecting, and/ or restoring marine biodiversity for its ecological, cultural, economic,
and other values.
• Marine debris: Reducing and/or mitigating the effects of marine debris, including the monitoring, clean-up, and recycling of
marine debris, and educating communities about how to address these issues.
• Public-private collaboration: Collaborating between the private sector, governments, and the public to protect marine environments. This might include ideas for cooperation between government and corporations to fulfill corporate social responsibility (CSR) goals, civic engagement opportunities for the public to engage with government programs, and other initiatives that
foster collaboration between public and private sectors. Solutions must be submitted online through Submittable (only one
proposal per person or team will be accepted). See important guidance in Selection Criteria below

Proposals will only be accepted in English at this time. Your video pitch and written responses will not
be scored based on your English proficiency, but rather the strength of your solution and your ability to
communicate your ideas and vision to the judges.

Proposal Process – Youth Innovation Challenge: Advancing Marine Conservation

Applications should include a short (3 minutes or less) video pitch about your innovative solution as
well as detailed responses to the questions below. Successful proposals will describe how their solution
addresses marine conservation, biodiversity, debris issues, or uses public-private collaborations to
protect marine environments, and will explain how their solution is innovative, feasible, and grounded
in effective environmental education (see Selection Criteria below).
Applications must be submitted online through Submittable by June 30 2025 at 11:59 PM U.S.
Eastern Time. Winners will be notified by September 2025.
We highly encourage you to use your own words and not to use AI-generated content, including
written responses from Chat GPT or other AI platforms or AI-generated photos or videos

Timeline – Youth Innovation Challenge: Advancing Marine Conservation

• May 2025: Applicant webinar to learn tips and tricks for submitting a strong Youth Innovation
Challenge video pitch and proposal. Registration information and a recording of the webinar will
be posted to the program webpage.
• June 30, 2025: All applications due through Submittable by 11:59 PM U.S. Eastern Time (convert to
your time zone).
• July—August 2025: Applications reviewed by YIC expert panel.
• September 2025: Finalists and winners notified. All applicants are welcome to request feedback
about their submissions.
• October 2025: Winners attend award ceremony in Taiwan.
Selection Criteria
The selection panel will use the below criteria to score your solutions and select the 15 YIC finalists and
3 YIC winners:
Aligns with at least one key focus area:
Your proposed solution falls within the scope of at least one of the key areas:
• Marine biodiversity and conservation: Managing, protecting, and/or restoring marine biodiversity
for its ecological, cultural, economic, and other values.
• Marine debris: Reducing and/or mitigating the effects of marine debris, including the monitoring,
clean-up, and recycling of marine debris, and educating communities about how to address
these issues.
• Public-private collaboration: Collaborating between the private sector, governments, and
the public to protect marine environments. This might include ideas for cooperation between
government and corporations to fulfill corporate social responsibility (CSR) goals, civic engagement
opportunities for the public to engage with government programs, and other initiatives that foster
collaboration between public and private sectors.

Application – Youth Innovation Challenge: Advancing Marine Conservation

• For details and to apply visit the official website
• Deadline – June 30, 2025