Applications are open for the Resilience Innovation through Scaling Entrepreneurship (RISE) Urban Challenge 2025.

This challenge aims to transform modern city concepts that address resilience needs in informal contexts and scale them into sustainable models. They are seeking innovative solutions addressing urban resilience challenges in informal contexts. Examples include (but are not limited to) climate risks, resilience retrofitting, water security, urban migration, and displacement. For this round of the RISE Urban Challenge, they encourage and welcome solutions that prioritize the resilience of women and youth.

BENEFITS

• Selected projects will receive a tailored leadership and mentoring program, communications support, and connections to investors.
• Subject matter experts will facilitate a leadership academy for the selected entrants, connecting them to potential investors and partners from GRP networks.
• Winners will be awarded prizes up to USD $50,000, which will support their scaling and implementation over 12 months, up to December 2026.

• Open to urban entrepreneurs, innovators, organizations, or consortiums of organizations within the private sector (startups, SMEs) and civil society or grassroots organizations based in low- and middle-income countries.
• Proposals from youth-led and women-led organizations are encouraged and welcomed.