The AQUILA CAPITAL TRANSFORMATION AWARD

The Aquila Capital Transformation Award aims to source and support outstanding innovative research focused on applicable and unconventional solutions to combat climate change. The award provides financial support for research and focuses on cooperation in the practical implementation of solutions. 

Since 2019, scientists and researchers can apply for the annual award, which is endowed with 20,000 euros. Themed "Solving the Climate Crisis through Innovation" in 2022, the award was aimed at academic research which contributes to finding implementable solutions to mitigate climate change and its consequences. 

A top-class jury evaluated the papers submitted. In 2022, the committee was composed of Professor Hans Joachim Schellnhuber, Director Emeritus at the Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research, Professor Eicke R. Weber, a former Director of the Fraunhofer Institute for Solar Energy Systems ISE, Professor Yukari Takamura from the University of Tokyo’s Institute for Future Initiatives, Professor Armin Aberle, CEO of the Solar Energy Research Institute of Singapore (SERIS) at the National University of Singapore, and Professor Claudia Kemfert, Head of the Department for Energy, Transportation and Environment at the German Institute of Economic Research (DIW) and Professor of Energy Economics and Energy Policy at the Leuphana University Lüneburg. 

In 2022, the Aquila Capital Transformation Award was given to Milad Mohsenzadeh, a recent PhD graduate from the University of Melbourne and the current postdoctoral research fellow at the University of New South Wales (UNSW), School of Photovoltaic and Renewable Energy Engineering. 

In his submitted paper, Milad Mohsenzadeh developed a concept for desalinating water cost-effectively by using a floating solar distillatory and producing drinking water in remote or disaster-stricken areas. The scarcity of freshwater, exacerbated by the climate crisis, is a major challenge for large parts of the global population, therefore related solutions are of utmost relevance. Against this background, the winning paper combines all essential criteria of the award, because the developed concept is innovative, at the same time practical and scalable, and its implementation imposes a large impact. 

Information about applications for the 2023 Transformation Award will be published shortly.