About the challenge

Proposals are required to respond to the following challenge statement:

How might we assist these organisations to better reduce and record scope 3 carbon emissions across their value chain to ensure transparency, foster collaboration among suppliers, partners and consumers and to achieve net zero goals?

Share in over $30,000 of funding to the winners!

Why Scope 3 Carbon Emissions?

Scope 3 emissions occur outside of the boundary of an organisation as a result of it’s actions. They refer to indirect greenhouse gas emissions generated throughout a company's value chain, including activities such as purchased goods and services, employee commuting, and end-of-life treatment of sold products.

By requiring companies to disclose their scope 3 emissions, the government aims to enhance transparency, accountability and ultimately drive emissions reductions across the economy.

Businesses will need to measure, monitor and disclose their scope 3 emissions enabling stakeholders to make informed decisions.

It’s about holding companies accountable for their environmental performance.

What is a Grand Challenge? 

We are bringing together multidisciplinary minds to explore accessible solutions to ultimately improve emissions reporting for our community.

The Grand Challenge is a series of events designed to build a robust solution to a specific problem. In this challenge, the University of Newcastle is seeking new and innovative solutions that empower organisations to reduce and record scope 3 emissions.

During the Grand Challenge, you have the opportunity to hear from industry experts about the problem of emissions reporting and then form interdisciplinary teams with other participants. Your team will research more into the emissions reporting and will begin to develop your idea or solution with support at our optional events. We have innovation mentors available to support your submission throughout.

Successful teams will receive up to $10,000 in funding to develop and test prototypes within a 6-month period.

The judges will outline your solutions’ merits according to the marking criteria and award the funding on the Awards Night.

AWARDS NIGHT
Tue 17 Oct, 5:30-8:00PM
University Gallery, Callaghan Campus

Requirements

We recommend, copying and pasting the below submission requirements into a Word.doc and completing before copying and pasting into your final submission.

Within your submission you will need to include: 

  • Project Name
  • Elevator Pitch (tagline, one sentence description)
  • About the Project (no more than 1,000 words in total):
    1. Description of multidisciplinary team members (biographies) (Including which team member/s are students, staff or alumni of the University of Newcastle)
    2. Describe and illustrate the proposed solution including:
    - Graphical depictions of the emissions reduction solution
    - Outline of how the proposed solution works
    - Outline of how the proposed solution improves on what is currently available
    - Outline of what is novel and creative about the solution design
    3. Describe the top three critical hypotheses you want to explore, including:
    - How you will test them;
    - Describe your experimental plan, including any new technologies or tools to be developed; and
    - If your experiments in the testing phase are successful what are the next steps?
    4. Describe how you would use funding to progress your hypotheses, including:
    - How will the work described be performed within the budget (up to AU$10,000) and period (6 months) allocated for the testing phase (resources, capability etc)?
    - What essential outcomes will you generate during your testing phase?
    - Include a brief breakdown of allowable costs.
  • Built with (if relevant)
  • 'Try it out' links (if relevant)
  • Images (if relevant)
  • Video demo link (no more than 2-minute duration)
  • Team member's full names and email addresses
  • Team Lead's name

 

Terms & Conditions

Available on the website.

Hackathon Sponsors

Prizes

$31,000 in prizes
Net Zero Grand Challenge Winner
3 winners

Project Funding:
There is a total funding pool of $30,000 with projects eligible for $10,000 in funding.
More information available on the website: https://www.netzerograndchallenge.com/
Paid in Australian $

Net Zero People's Choice Winner
1 winner

Completed submissions are in the running for a People's Choice Award.
More information available on the website: https://www.netzerograndchallenge.com/
Paid in Australian $

Devpost Achievements

Submitting to this hackathon could earn you:

Judges

Siobhan Curran

Siobhan Curran
Director of Entrepreneurship, University of Newcastle

Professor Alex Zelinsky

Professor Alex Zelinsky
Vice Chancellor & President, University of Newcastle

Joel Palmer

Joel Palmer
Director of Strategy, Planning and Performance, University of Newcastle

Judging Criteria

  • Clarity of Problem
    Ability to describe well the part of the problem the team is looking to solve.
  • Vision / Solution
    Exciting, innovative and unique aspects of the proposal.
  • Testability
    Shows a clear, logical, and thoughtful description of up to three hypotheses to be tested and potential results that will be produced.
  • Outcomes
    Describes with clarity what the expected minimum viable product will look like or how the minimum viable experiment will be performed within budget and the 6-month timeframe allocated, including what value and/or learnings are planned to be achieved.
  • Action plan
    Clearly articulates next steps and how the funding will be used.
  • Team
    Demonstrates the uniqueness of the team to tackle the challenge and their commitment to their proposal.

Questions? Email the hackathon manager

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