XPRIZE and the Government of Barbados agreed on a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) to jointly fundraise the XPRIZE Corals, a competition that will unleash the innovations needed to restore earth’s coral reefs at an unprecedented speed and scale. 

LOS ANGELES (March 26, 2022) -  XPRIZE, the world’s leader in designing and operating incentive competitions to solve humanity’s grand challenge, and the Government of Barbados announced a formal partnership to collaborate on strategic initiatives that address the challenges facing Barbados and other nations around the world, with an initial goal to restore coral reefs to their pristine statuses so that the planet and humanity can once again fully realize these ecosystems’ benefits.

On the stage of the Dubai Expo, Barbados Prime Minister Mia Mottley outlined a 5 year XPRIZE competition that would be the largest single coral restoration effort ever.

“Islands like Barbados are highly susceptible to the impacts of climate change,” said Barbados Prime Minister Mia Mottley. “This partnership with XPRIZE is part of Barbado’s broader effort to invest in innovative solutions and initiatives that will catalyze a global shift towards more just and sustainable economies.”

XPRIZE and the Government of Barbados will collaborate to jointly fundraise for the XPRIZE Coral Restoration competition, a 5+ year long, $20M competition that will task competitors with successfully restoring the largest area of coral reef in a two-year period with a minimum area the size of 3 hectares and at least 3 different types of corals.

“Coral Reefs are vital to Earth’s infrastructure, they support a quarter of all ocean life, protect coasts from storms, and their beauty draws billions of dollars in tourism across the world,” said XPRIZE CEO Anousheh Ansari. “The XPRIZE Coral Restoration competition offers a chance for these vital ecosystems to survive beyond the next decade.”

In addition to fundraising to launch XPRIZE Coral Restoration, the Government of Barbados will assist in global outreach efforts to recruit competing teams and support prize operations by facilitating and coordinating logistics of field testing for XPRIZE Coral Restoration, be that in Barbados or regionally, including identifying deployment locations, permitting and permissions necessary for reef restoration solutions to be implemented. The Government of Barbados will also provide immigration support for competing teams during the Finals testing phase and logistical support for teams such as access to local coral nurseries, universities, labs, accommodations, and accelerator programs in the region, as well as connections to regional allies to provide additional testing capacity and deployment sites

The agreement between XPRIZE and the Government of Barbados is based on a shared goal of elevating Barbados as an international Innovation Hub and nation-as-platform for developing, prototyping, and deploying solutions for reef restoration and other grand challenges such as climate change