- People’s Choice bonus prize campaign kicks off; winner to be announced at the 2023 Milken Institute Global Conference in May
The Milken Institute and the Motsepe Foundation today kicked off the final phase of the Milken-Motsepe Prize in AgriTech. Starting February 1, the remaining 22 competing Finalist teams will have 22 days to highlight their innovations and garner votes for the People’s Choice bonus prize.
The team with the most votes will be announced in May at the Milken Institute Global Conference in Los Angeles.
The global innovation competition launched in April 2021. More than 3,300 people from 105 countries across six continents registered, and 25 finalists were announced in April 2022. Each team received $10,000 to develop and test their designs to improve economic value for small- and medium-sized farms in Africa. In May, judges will award the $1 million Grand Prize, with additional prize money distributed among Second and Third Place winners, and bonus prizes for the Most Creative Use of Fourth Industrial Revolution Technologies and the People’s Choice.
“We included a People’s Choice component for the design of this competition for two main reasons,” said Emily Musil Church, PhD, senior director at the Milken Institute. “First, to incentivize innovators to communicate the importance of their solutions, which could be game-changing, to potential new markets. Second, to give the public the exposure to a wide array of AgriTech solutions and weigh in on those that seem most useful and relevant to them.”
Finalist teams were chosen for their ability to:
- Increase net economic value to the farmer
- Increase productivity at harvest and/or decrease post-harvest loss
- Reduce costs for farmers
- Provide a viable and sustainable business model
- Be implemented by small and medium-sized farms in Africa
- Develop or integrate innovative technologies
Voting for the Milken-Motsepe Prize in AgriTech People’s Choice bonus prize is open now through February 22, 2023, at 1 pm EST/8 pm CAT. An online ballot online ballot form is available, allowing voters to cast one vote for their preferred team.
For more about the Prize in AgriTech and the Milken-Motsepe Innovation Prize Program, please visit milkenmotsepeprize.org.
