Discover. Understand. Preserve.

Registration officially opens on 19 November, 2019.

Teams that register on or before 18:59:59 UTC on 15 October 2020 (Early Registration) will be required to pay a registration fee of $500 USD. Teams that register after that date and time and up until 18:59:59 UTC on 15 March 2021 (Regular Registration) will be required to pay a registration fee of $1,000 USD. XPRIZE has sole discretion to register and qualify additional teams between 16 March 2021 and 15 June 2022 (Discretionary Late Registration). Teams that register during this period must meet all the initial requirements and pay a late registration fee of $1,500 USD.

Competing in an XPRIZE is an exciting journey that often requires a commitment of time, expertise, and resources. Registration fees are required as a simple qualifier to ensure competitors will be able to obtain the appropriate resources to fully compete. All fees collected are used to support XPRIZE teams.

We encourage you to update your team and user profiles on the Prize Operations Platform (POP) to share more information about yourself with other teams. Complete all other open registration activities listed on your team page on POP to be sure your team is on track with all required submissions.

The competition will take place in four rounds over five years. Following the competition, an additional year will be devoted to amplifying the impacts of the Rainforest XPRIZE.

Teams can come from anywhere. They are often startups, university groups, high school students, people from the Maker- or Hackerspace, small to midsize companies, or families or even individuals. They can come from scientific and/or technical disciplines including but not limited to robotics, VR, AI, biodiversity, ecology, remote sensing, or big data. We hope and encourage teams from local forest communities. The final ten teams will be required to have team participation from indigenous or local communities, or an academic institution from one or more of the countries that contain a rainforest. We believe a good idea can come from anyone!

You can follow the competition at rainforest.xprize.org. Whether you just want to learn more and amplify the reach and impact of this competition or want to directly support teams with resources and expertise, there is an opportunity to participate without competing. Also join the XPRIZE Exploration and Environment communities at community.xprize.org.

The winning team will develop novel technologies to rapidly and comprehensively survey rainforest biodiversity and use that data to improve our understanding of this complex ecosystem.

The winning team will have to survey the most biodiversity in a tropical rainforest in 24 hours and use that data to produce the greatest number of new insights after 48 hours that will reveal the true potential of the standing forest.

Insights are a new understanding of the ecosystem and may include, but are not limited to, new ecological dependencies, biodiversity, climate connectivity, anthropological findings, undiscovered threats or even sustainable societal interactions with the forest.

Teams will be evaluated based on their engagement with indigenous or local communities within a rainforest, or an academic institution from one or more of the countries that contain a rainforest. Engagement may include participation as a team member, team advisor, team collaborator, etc. We will also encourage teams to compete from local rainforest communities.

Teams will own their Intellectual Property on any technology or data integration techniques and processes they develop as part of their competition Entry. XPRIZE will adhere to the Convention on Biological Diversity, national or international regulations regarding ownership of the data (biological or otherwise) and insights produced as part of the competition. If none such regulations pertain to the data collected during the course of the competition, XPRIZE will retain ownership of such data and insights. These data and insights will only be released following the conclusion of the competition to interested stakeholders who have demonstrated a commitment to preserving rainforests, and who will be incentivized to sustain the forest.

There will be $10 million (USD) in total prize purses available.

There will be a Finals Prize Purse in the amount of $7,500,000 (Seven Million Five Hundred Thousand USD). The Finals Prize Purse will be divided among the top-ranking Teams as First, Second, and Third Place Awards.
● First Place: $5,000,000 (Five Million USD)
● Second Place: $2,000,000 (Two Million USD)
● Third Place: $500,000 (Five Hundred Thousand USD)

There will be a Bonus Prize Purse in the amount of $250,000 (Two Hundred Fifty Thousand USD). that may be awarded at the Judging Panel’s discretion to one or more Finalist Teams whose Solutions demonstrate groundbreaking achievements.

There will be $2,000,000 (Two Million USD) to be shared equally among all Teams (up to 10) selected as Finalists.

There will be $250,000 (Two Hundred Fifty Thousand USD) to be shared equally among all Teams (up to 25) selected as Semifinals