The three climate leader winners with Prof Rachel Mills

Pitch for the Planet winners Samuel Gandy and Victoria Yates

Pitch for the Planet contestant Catarina Filipe Silva being quizzed by the judging panel

Student-led projects growing microgreens, using AI to measure biodiversity, tree planting to improve water quality and promoting sustainable fashion will share £20,000 of University of Sussex funding after being chosen as the latest winners of the Pitch for the Planet competition.

Six competitors went head-to-head in a Dragons’ Den style challenge at the Attenborough Centre for the Creative Arts this morning, pitching their sustainable innovation ideas in a bid to win a share of £20,000 funding and a place on the Sussex Accelerator scheme to help turn their ideas into reality.

The enterprising entrants were tasked with finding solutions to some of the world’s most difficult problems including reducing energy consumption; carbon capture and/or compensation; reducing water consumption; sustainable education and/or community engagement; protecting or enhancing biodiversity; sustainable food and/or agriculture; or sustainable travel.

Three other students received COP Climate Leader Prizes worth £3,000 each in recognition of their outstanding climate leadership in the run-up to and immediate aftermath of the UN Climate Change Conference (COP26) held in Glasgow in November.

Professor Rachel Mills, Provost at the University of Sussex, said: "I was really impressed by the passion, ambition and innovation in the pitches that were presented today and the quality of candidates for our Climate Leader scholarships. It is inspiring to see how committed our students are to delivering real change around our sustainability goals.

"The University's vision to be one of the most sustainable in the world is powered by our staff and students and I am delighted that we can support the next generation of sustainability champions with these Climate Leader scholarships.

"It will be very exciting to see the Pitch for the Planet projects develop and deliver things that are hugely beneficial for our campus community and beyond."

The winners of the second Pitch for the Planet competition are:

• Kimia Goudarzi (£8,000) to create a rental and repair business for pre-loved clothes
• Timothy Merritt and Daniela Valenzuela (£5,000) to create a social initiative supporting fruit and nut tree planting along Sussex riverbanks
• Samuel Gandy and Victoria Yates (£4,000) to develop AI technology that identifies and counts species and wildlife living in an ecosystem
• Jack Zeniewski (£3,000) to grow and harvest microgreens for food

The winning pitches were selected by a judging panel including University of Sussex Provost Professor Rachel Mills, Brighton and Hove City Council Leader Cllr Phélim Mac Cafferty, Impact Entrepreneur and Mentor Sara Osterholzer and University of Sussex Council member Richard Zaltzman.

At the inaugural Pitch for the Planet competition, held in January last year, the University awarded funding to projects to projects developing bio char fertiliser, hydroponic fishtank food production, sustainable fashion and the gamification of sustainable behaviour change.

Pitch for the Planet Winner Jack Zeniewski said: “I think this is a great opportunity to turn a vision into a reality. It would be fantastic to see these power plants appear in all kinds of places, the idea is as big as we can make it.

“Pitch for the planet is a fantastic opportunity for entrepreneurs like me to meet with others and feed off of one another’s ideas. It’s a great way to get feedback and test what works.”

Pitch for the Planet Winner Samuel Gandy said: “It is an incredible feeling to have won, I’m speechless. It is very exciting to think that we could help and hopefully solve the critical issue of preserving biodiversity in Sussex and the UK.

“This funding is massive for us. It will allow us to get the servers we need to process all the data. It’s just great that we presented the idea to four people we never met before and they liked the idea too.”

The three winners of the COP Climate Leader Prizes worth £3,000 each are:

Temilade Salami – Founder of EcoChampions, a group of 200 young environmentalists across Nigeria, leading climate education, tree planting and climate change advocacy.
Author of two environmental education books for children currently in use Nigerian primary schools.
Selected as a UNESCO and UNFCCC youth observer for COP26 in Glasgow.

Kathryn Cheeseman - Run tree planting initiative since 2019 which became formalised as a not-for-profit in 2021: The Wilding Network.
Planted over 9000 trees which will sequester up to 9000 tonnes of carbon dioxide over the next 40 years.
Plans to expand Wilding Network to include rewilding seascapes and supporting kelp forests.

Ben Mitchell - Helped launch Aquaponics Life CIC, a sustainable closed-system form of food production.
Leading coordinator of Extinction Rebellion (XR) Society at Sussex.
Helped organise four direct local campaign actions around climate action, defending local wildlife and excess consumerism.

Awarded for the first time this year, the prizes will be replaced by a minimum of five annual Sussex Climate Leadership Scholarships worth £3,000 per year from the next academic year onwards.

Climate Leader prize winner Temilade Salami said: “It is surreal to have won this prize, it feels so good. I will be using the money to help fund a project supporting climate leader scholarships for 30 African students.

“The way that Sussex prioritises sustainability was one of the reasons I wanted to come and study here. Not a lot of universities would put a spotlight on climate change action and climate change education like this. It is beautiful to see Sussex living up to the values they promote.”

Council leader Phélim Mac Cafferty added: “It was hugely exciting and inspiring to take part in an event that once again demonstrates the many different opportunities we must seize to tackle the climate crisis.

“The projects selected today align with so much of the council’s already published work as part of our Carbon Neutral 2030 plan - including on promoting and developing the circular economy, increasing biodiversity and to providing sustainable food. All of these are a win-win for both our environment and society.

“As part of the council’s ongoing work to tackle climate change we’re proud to be connecting with a number of partners across the city who share our goals for a healthier city and planet. Our universities are key partners and continue to provide deeply valued insight on the many projects the council already has underway.

“Today once again demonstrates that students at our universities are clearly rising to the brave technical and technological challenges that we face when pushing for ‘net zero.’ It’s precisely this kind of innovation and thirst for ideas that we will need to navigate the difficult task of reversing climate breakdown, and to support our residents.”