Nominations are now open for the 2021 MIT Water Innovation Prize.

The MIT Water Innovation Prize is a startup competition focused on water innovation that awards up to $35K in innovation grants annually to student-led teams from across the country and internationally. The Prize started in 2015 and has since awarded $100K to 12 teams.

Prize Information

The winners of the MIT Water Innovation Prize will be awarded innovation grants of up to $35,000. 

Criteria

• The entry must involve a technology, product, service, or process aimed at solving a problem related to the world’s water challenges. The water space has numerous opportunities and challenges to solve related to policy, technology, data sensing, analytics, implementation, financing, end-to-end solutions, etc. They encourage diverse and creative submissions.
• A team must be comprised of at least one student who is fully enrolled at any college or university, and it must be a student who presents the pitch.
• At least one student presenter from the team must be available to attend a the final pitch event in April, 2021.
• Teams are not eligible to participate in the Spring 2021 MIT Water Innovation Prize if they have secured combined funding, grants, prize money, or revenue greater than $100k (exclusive of funding explicitly awarded  for research, technology, or product development).
• Entering teams must be prepared to provide documentation to validate any claims that are made concerning the intellectual property underlying their business plans, including any claims concerning the licensing of Third-Party IP. Entries should be made with the full understanding of MIT’s regulations on Intellectual Property Rights.
• Innovations at all stages are welcome to apply; however, past winners of the prize  have been able to demonstrate the potential to take their innovation to  market within a reasonable time horizon (~5yrs).

Prize payments are treated as income by MIT and the IRS, regardless of whether the payment is made to an individual or a company. Non-U.S. citizens are taxed on their prize money up front at a rate of 30%, which is withheld from their prize checks.

For more information, visit MIT Water Innovation Prize.