Info Session for XPRIZE Water Scarcity Initiative

This seminar aims to provide a comprehensive overview of the XPRIZE Water Scarcity initiative, a $119 million, 5-year global competition made possible by the Mohamed bin Zayed Water Initiative. This prize is designed to drive widespread access to clean water by creating reliable, sustainable, and affordable seawater desalination systems. Competing teams will develop new desalination technologies to unlock access to Earth’s ocean water year-round, helping drive a world where clean water is equitably and sustainably abundant.

TRACK A - THE NEW DESALINATION SYSTEM

The winning team will reliably and most sustainably generate one million liters of potable water per day (1,000 m3/ day) from seawater at the lowest cost, below a target benchmark to ensure global accessibility, over the course of 1 year.

Track B - Novel Membrane Materials

The winning team will demonstrate a novel membrane that can sustainably and cost effectively treat seawater to potable water quality, using pressure-driven salt-water separation, with an operational lifetime of 10 years or more. The novel membrane should be a direct replacement for or a novel innovation on seawater reverse osmosis (SWRO) membranes. 

Interested start-ups and research teams are encouraged to join this Info Session to learn more about the initiative.