The RELX Environmental Challenge 2026 for Safe Water or Sanitation Projects (Up To $50,000 Prize)

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Applications are open for The RELX Environmental Challenge 2026. Each year, since 2011, the RELX Environmental Challenge has awarded projects that best demonstrate how they can provide sustainable access to safe water or sanitation.

Awarding a $50,000 prize for the first place entry and a $25,000 prize for the second place entry, winners also receive free access for one year to ScienceDirect, RELX Scientific, Technical & Medical business’ database of full text, scientific information, including almost 250,000 articles since 2000 in Environmental Sciences.

Categories & Evaluation Criteria

The RELX Environmental Challenge is open to individuals and organisations operating in both the not-for-profit and for-profit sectors.

Clean Water or Sanitation Category
- Projects must advance sustainable access to safe water where it is at risk and/or improve access to sanitation.
Ocean Category
- Projects must support ocean health, marine ecosystems, or ocean-based solutions that contribute to environmental sustainability and resilience.

All submissions will be evaluated against the following criteria:

Be replicable, scalable, and sustainable
Set a benchmark for innovation
Demonstrate practical applicability
Address non-discrimination and equity of access
Involve and positively impact a range of stakeholders
Show strong local or community-level engagement

RELX Environmental Challenge Funding Details

Each winning project will receive a single payment of $75,000. Early stage projects are preferred.
Up to two (2) prizes may be awarded (total estimated value of all prizes is at least US$150,000) as follows:
1. US$75,000 for winner of clean water and sanitation category and
2. US$75,000 for winner of ocean category, each to be used to launch, sustain or effectuate its respective winning proposal in accordance with the benchmarks in the judging criteria.
Awarding a $50,000 prize for the first place entry and a $25,000 prize for the second place entry

Eligibility Criteria

The Challenge is open only to applicants 21 years of age or over at their time of entry with access to the
internet and an email account during the Challenge Period (defined below) and subsequent Prize Award
Period (as defined below).
Proof of residency and age may be required.
Applicants may participate as:
1. Individuals
2. Teams of individuals
3. Individually or in teams on behalf of an organisation, i.e. an educational or not-for-profit institution or a corporation (the latter category, collectively “Organisations”).