Launch Date: 13th December 2021
Last Date of Application: 30th January 2022
For application details please refer to the application guidelines Click Here
On the State Visit to India, Her Excellency Ms. Mette Frederiksen, Prime Minister of Denmark, and Prime Minister of India, Shri Narendra Modi welcome the encouraging progress in the bilateral relations on sustainable water entrepreneurship initiative under the NITI Aayog – Atal Innovation Mission and Innovation Center Denmark ‘Water Challenge’ in 2022 and 2023.
Envisioning the partnership, AIM in collaboration with ICDK and DTU will be launching the second edition of the Water Challenge to bring water-related issues to the forefront of the world. Today, 1.1 billion people worldwide live in poverty without access to safe drinking water. Water-related diseases are among the most common causes of illness, affecting the majority in developing countries. Also on another end with increasing urbanization, we find more and more untreated water being dumped into natural water sources and unsustainable agricultural practices. There is a dire need of creating innovative and frugal products and processes that can help us mitigate these challenges.
With that idea, Atal Innovation Mission, NITI Aayog (AIM-NITI Aayog) has partnered with Innovation Center Denmark (ICDK), Denmark Embassy in India, and the Denmark Technical University (DTU) to launch the AIM-ICDK Water Innovation Challenge 2.0 in the below-mentioned areas:
The initiative aims to identify innovative & next-gen solutions to solve proposed challenges in collaboration with corporate and public partners. The initiative will engage young talent from leading universities and innovation hubs across the nation to build their skills and apply their technical disciplines and innovation capacity to come up with technology-driven innovative solutions for effective water management in India. The winners of the challenges shall be a part of the Indian team for the Next Generation Water Action.
- Receive mentoring from water experts and IWA Young Water Professionals
- Gain access to laboratories and mentoring at IIT’s and test your solution in a broader context
- Expand your professional network and interact with stakeholders from across the world
- Get access to a platform to pitch your concept and further develop your solution
- Become part of an international community of likeminded addressing different local challenges
- Participate in the Final Pitch Session and Award Ceremony in May 2021
- Get the chance to win scholarships and awards to further scale your solution, among others the chance to join the IWA World Water Congress 2022 in Copenhagen in September
These challenges will identify two young student teams and two startups from India working on innovative technologies that can address water challenges in our country. The chosen teams will get access to innovation hubs across India and Denmark for helping them launch their initiative and ensure their impact for a better future. The selected solutions shall also leverage upon the Danish technical expertise and rich experience in this sector and benefit from this bilateral collaboration. The water challenges linked to the defined themes will be developed and presented with selected industries and organizations. It will help to provide a scoping and valuable basis for students and young entrepreneurs to create relevant insights and ideas. Student teams and young entrepreneurs will work during the development phase (Feb - May) with the help of (among others) Danish industry professionals to identify pioneering solutions to the defined water challenges. Groups will, together with global peers, further build and present their results as part of the Next Generation Water Action.
Please see the Youtube link of the launch event
