Rainforest XPRIZE

Phase

Awarded

Discover. Understand. Preserve.

$10 Million

Prize Purse

The $10M XPRIZE Rainforest is a five-year competition to enhance our understanding of the rainforest ecosystem.

Overview

Meet The Teams

Understanding Rainforests for

Impact

XPRIZE Rainforest is a global 5-year, $10 million competition that convenes innovators and experts across disciplines – from conservationists and Indigenous scientists to engineers and roboticists – and challenges them to use novel technologies to expedite the monitoring of tropical biodiversity.

THE INNOVATIONS DEVELOPED THROUGH XPRIZE RAINFOREST WILL REVOLUTIONIZE HOW WE WORK TOGETHER TO PROTECT THE PLANET’S MOST DIVERSE AND COMPLEX ECOSYSTEMS IN A TIME THAT HAS NEVER BEEN MORE URGENT FOR LIFE ON EARTH.

Peter Houlihan

EVP, Biodiversity and Conservation

The Grand Challenge

Tropical rainforests are the most biodiverse ecosystems on Earth but our ability to fully assess them is restricted as they are so vast and complex. By deploying rapid and autonomous technology into the forest, researchers can gain near real-time insights about biodiversity – providing necessary data that can inform conservation action and policy, support sustainable bioeconomies, and empower Indigenous Peoples and local communities who are the primary stewards, protectors, and knowledge holders of the planet’s tropical rainforests.

How to Win

The winning team will develop novel technologies to rapidly and comprehensively survey rainforest biodiversity and use that data to improve our understanding of this complex ecosystem to benefit both biodiversity and forest communities. For the finals testing, teams must be able to survey 100 hectares of tropical rainforest in 24 hours and produce the most impactful real-time insights within 48 hours. Teams also need to demonstrate the scalability of their technology and maximize performance on biodiversity surveying and producing insights to meet the prize criteria and effectively disrupt the current biodiversity assessment landscape.

We welcome partners throughout all phases of the competition, whether you want to help recruit teams, support team success, secure an XPRIZE speaker or expert for your event, help scale winning solutions, or assist with testing operations.

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