$290,000 up for grabs in Quebec student climate change prizes

Environment Minister Benoit Charette, along with Galith Levy, Jeff Hart and Patrick Gagne announced that Quebec will award $290,000 in three prizes to those students who develop a solution to climate change. SOURCE: Jason Trott

A Canadian research organization is incentivizing Quebec students to come up with innovative solutions to the climate change crisis.

Students can win $90,000 at the Climate Solutions Festival for the Quebec Student Entrepreneur Innovation Prize.

"The $90,000 Quebec Student Entrepreneur Innovation Prize should send a strong signal to young people exploring a myriad of options for their career path. Our message is simple: choose climate," said chief climate solutions prize officer Galith Levy.

In addition, $100,000 will go to the Climate Solutions Breakthrough Research Prize recipients, and winners of the Startups Prize will also take home $100,000.

The festival will take place May 23 and 24 at the Grand Quay in Montreal's Old Port.

The non-profit research organization Mitacs is sponsoring the entrepreneur prize.

"We are passionate about helping to build a world-class, diverse community of innovators through our collaborative model," said Mitacs CEO John Hepburn in a news release. "In this case, that means matching the Climate Solutions Prize for students, thereby creating an award that will stimulate new ideas and propel Cleantech research in Quebec."

To take home the climate solutions prize, participants need to focus on a solution for practical use to: reduce greenhouse gas emissions, improve energy efficiency, renewable energy, and energy storage, or develop carbon capturing capacity naturally or artificially.

To enter, students must be enrolled in a Quebec-based university for the next two years.

Winners must be associated with a Mitacs-eligible incubator and meet other requirements.

The deadline for submissions is April 7.