OPEN INNOVATION CHALLENGE

Seeking Innovative Solutions for Extreme Wildfires

Be a part of the solution and help tackle the challenges of Extreme Wildfires in Europe and beyond.
Participate in the FIRE-RES Open Innovation Challenge and help us build more resilient landscapes and safe communities: submit your proposal by 19 November at 23:59 CET.

Register for the upcoming Open Innovation Challenge Q&A Webinar here

The Challenge: Extreme Wildfires

In recent years, Europe has experienced a significant increase in the frequency and intensity of wildfires. These extreme wildfires have resulted in devastating consequences, including the loss of life, destruction of natural habitats, damage to infrastructure and the release of harmful emissions impacting air quality.

We are calling upon innovators, entrepreneurs, technologists, researchers, businesses of all sizes, experts, and all forward-thinking minds in the field to step up and submit cutting-edge solutions addressing the challenges experienced by different stakeholders coping with the risks of extreme wildfires.

The challenges are organised under the following themes:

  • Risk Communication and Awareness
  • Engagement and Empowerment
  • Training and Education
  • Management Before, During and After Extreme Wildfire Events 
  • Monitoring
  • Forecasting and Decision Support
  • Policy and Governance
Explore all themes and challenges!

What types of solutions are we looking for?

We are looking for innovative solutions in all development stages – from early ideas, methods, prototypes to close-to-market or market-ready services and products (from here on summarised as “solutions”) that can help solve our FIRE-RES Open Innovation Challenges. The solutions may address any stage of wildfire management: prevention and preparedness, detection and response, restoration and adaptation. We welcome all kinds of solutions, for instance technological, social, or business model related; products, services, platforms, processes, procedures, best practice, etc. 

Successful applicants with early-stage solutions, such as ideas, will be supported to develop their solutions, while those with later-stage solutions, such as prototypes, close-to-market, or market-ready solutions will be supported to demonstrate, pilot and upscale their solutions. 

We are not looking for proposals for research papers or research projects as we aim to support targeted activities to develop, demonstrate, pilot and upscale concrete solutions. 

If you missed the info session or would like to rewatch it, click here

Why participate?

The FIRE-RES Open Innovation Challenge offers an unprecedented opportunity to make a lasting impact on wildfire prevention and, preparedness, detection and response, restoration and adaptation. By participating in the FIRE-RES Open Innovation Challenge, you will have the opportunity to: 

  • Make a Difference: Submit solutions that save lives, protect communities, and safeguard our environment.
  • Access Tailored Support: Selected solutions are eligible for economic and in-kind support and mentorship to develop and upscale the solutions.
  • Pitch and upscale: Get access to contacts and guidance from key actors and experts across Europe and South America. Present your solution to a wider audience through FIRE-RES events and publications.
  • Get Feasibility Insights: Understand the fitness, market readiness, and feasibility of your solution by demonstrating and testing in real life conditions.
  • Expand Professional Network: Meet like-minded professionals, researchers, and organisations working together to combat wildfire challenges.
  • Be Recognised: Gain visibility and prestige as FIRE-RES Open Innovation Challenge winner.

Who are the challenge owners?

FIRE-RES tests, deploys, and implements innovations in 11 Living Labs. These are geographical areas, such as sub-national regions and countries (mostly in Europe), in which FIRE-RES collaborates with wildfire stakeholders to demonstrate and deploy innovations to overcome wildfire problems. The local and regional stakeholders that we collaborate with include the public sector, civil protection, landowners, scientific communities, private companies, and citizen associations.

FIRE-RES organised workshops in the Living Labs to understand which are the major challenges of the local stakeholders. Through this bottom-up approach, 17 challenges in 7 challenge themes were defined. Each challenge includes a section “Voice of the Living Lab(s)” to represent the specific context, conditions, and needs of the Living Labs with regards to the challenges.

How to apply?

Review the challenges, prepare a compelling application, and submit your solution through the application form hosted on F6S. Visit the submission guidelines for complete information about eligibility, application, and evaluation.

Submit your proposal by 19 November at 23:59 CET. 

In more detail, the recommended procedure is: 

Read thoroughly all information and materials on the FIRE-RES Open Innovation Challenge; particularly the submission guidelines for complete information about eligibility, application, and evaluation. 

Take note of the Challenges, to which you wish to propose a solution (if your solution addresses more than one challenge, you will be able to indicate this in the application form). 

Click the ‘Submit your application!’ button, which will take you to the F6S platform. Create a profile in order to be able to submit an application. F6S is the largest global startup community with over 4 million members; Benefits for members include access to funding, grants, partnerships, pilot contracts, etc. 

Read and follow instructions in the form carefully. Note that only applications submitted in English will be considered.  

Only applications received through the F6S platform will be considered in the selection process. All mandatory fields must be completed.  

You can answer the questions in any order. Your entries and any changes you make to them will be automatically saved to an ‘in-progress’ version until you submit your application.  

The information provided should be up-to-date, accurate, and complete. 

The application form requests information on the team and on the solution. Regarding the solution, you will be asked to provide the following information: Name; Subtitle; Description of the solution; Value Proposition; Novelty; Impact; Challenge fit; Business model; Validation/Demonstration. Additional instructions and character counts for each field of the application form are provided on the F6S application form.  

Ensure that the declarations on the application form are confirmed. 

Once your application is complete, click Submit to send off your application. If you submit multiple application forms for the same solution, only the one submitted last (date-stamped automatically by the application platform) will be considered in the selection process. 

If you wish to submit more than one solution, please complete a separate application for each of them. 

You will receive an email confirming receipt of your submission(s). 

Ensure that your application is in line with the submission guidelines of the FIRE-RES Open Innovation Challenge. 

You will be contacted via email to confirm your eligibility and inform you whether your submission was successful. 

Submit your application!

Join us in the Fight against Extreme Wildfires!

If you wish to submit more than one solution, please contact the challenge organisers on oic@fire-res.eu.

Points of contact

The OIC points of contact available to the applicant are: