Several Israeli experts at the forefront of climate tech research on Wednesday were awarded The Climate Solutions Prize, a joint initiative between Keren Kayemeth Le'Israel-Jewish National Fund (KKL-JNF), JNF Canada and Start-Up Nation Central granting them over $2 million in prizes.
At the Climate Solutions Prize Festival, a meeting of government officials, businesspeople, non-profit groups and other innovators leading the field of climate tech, Prof. Avner Rothschild from the Technion-Israel Institute of Technology, Prof. Itzhak Mizrahi of Ben Gurion University, Prof. Malachi Noked of Bar Ilan University and others were honored for their contributions to climate technology research.
Hundreds of people attended the event, which took place in the Hulda forest in central Israel.
The Climate Solutions Prize is split into two different tracks: One is the Breakthrough Research Prize, which includes a grant for scientists and researchers and the other is the Startup Track, which includes several challenges with lucrative investment and cash prizes, as well as PR. Each challenge is led by different leading companies, including Capital Nature, ESIL, Kornit Digital, SolarEdge, the Temasek Foundation and Merck.
Research Track winners
The researchers who won the prize for the Research Track include Rothschild, for his work on producing green hydrogen as energy using decoupled water electrolysis, Mizrahi, for his research on reducing greenhouse gas emissions and climate change using the biome of ruminants, and Noked, for the development of sodium-ion batteries.
Startup Track winners
The Startup Track winners include Copprint, which replaces unsustainable chemical processes formanufacturing circuit boards and antennae with printing using copper ink, Marine Edge, which reduces carbon emissions by ships, Styletech.ai, which reduces carbon emissions by the fashion industry, Smart Resilin, which developed resilin, a sustainable alternative to certain pollutant materials, and Red Solar Flower, for reducing carbon emissions and improving food security by deploying solar panels in agricultural areas.
“I could not be more excited to see this dream come to fruition of supercharging the ingenuity of Israel, the Start-up Nation, to help solve the climate crisis.”
Jeff Hart, Climate Solutions Prize Executive Chair
“I could not be more excited to see this dream come to fruition of supercharging the ingenuity of Israel, the Start-up Nation, to help solve the climate crisis,” said Climate Solutions Prize Executive Chair Jeff Hart. “I am so thankful to everyone involved for helping with this critical initiative for our future generations.”
“KKL-JNF sees the development of knowledge and technology as an important and necessary basis for the fight against the climate crisis,” said KKL-JNF CEO Amnon Ben Ami. “The award is given after professional thinking and subsequently for exceptional cooperation for an important cause. The grants distributed to the winners will allow Israeli start-ups to develop significant technologies for all of us and there is no doubt that Israel will continue to lead in the field. KKL-JNF, as the largest green organization in Israel, puts the treatment of the climate crisis as a flag and we operate in Israel and help organizations and countries around the world to become greener.”
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