Note: The submission deadline for the Urban Mobility Resilience Challenge has been extended to June 1.
As flooding issues continue to plague residents of Hampton Roads, another opportunity is under way to help solve it: the 2020 RISE Coastal Community Resilience Challenges.
RISE, a Virginia-based nonprofit focused on seeking solutions to the problems coastal communities face with sea level rise and recurrent flooding, is offering $2 million to fund entrepreneurs with startup business plans aimed at procuring solutions to solve six coastal Virginia flooding and environmental challenges.
The contest is open to anyone in the world, but the test bed has to be in Hampton Roads.
Proposals for up to $250,000 each must be received by March 20 for five of the challenges and by June 1 for the urban mobility challenge. Along with the funding, winners also receive data sets, coworking office space, fabrication and testing workspace and the support of experts in various fields.
The six focus areas are: flood management, data analytics, protection of buildings, re-establishing critical utilities, reconnecting neighborhoods and urban mobility. They are based on addressing real problems in southeastern Virginia.
Award recipients will be able to work with the cities of Houston, Miami, Norfolk and Virginia Beach and Sentara Healthcare, the Port of Virginia, Old Dominion University, Virginia Institute of Marine Science, Esri (a geographic information system company) and Waze.
Katerina Oskarsson, RISE’S chief strategy officer, said in a news release that the partnerships are essential to provide guidance to the teams to help refine their solutions and make them applicable to other coastal communities.
RISE held its first challenge in 2018. Paul Robinson, RISE’s executive director, said it was well received and led to this year’s challenge having specifically focused problems.
“We have established a resilience hub of innovators in Hampton Roads and we look forward to adding more companies,” Robinson said in a news release. “We are seeking to earn recognition for Hampton Roads as ground zero for resilience entrepreneurship.”
The six winners of the inaugural challenge in 2018 received $1.5 million to pilot their solutions and grow their businesses.
They include: Grow Oyster Reefs LLC, which manufactures concrete oyster substrate products to help improve oyster reef restoration; InfraSGA, which designs and installs curbside barriers that guide stormwater runoff into natural channels; and Constructis Energy, which uses kinetic energy from moving vehicles to provide emergency power storage.
To apply for the RISE challenge, go to riseresilience.org.
Sandra J. Pennecke, 757-222-5356, sandra.pennecke@insidebiz.com
