Artisanal Mining Grand Challenge

Structure

STAGE 1: APPLY

You must submit your application by March 1st, 2020, 11:59 PM Eastern Standard Time (New York).

Please make sure you are adhering to our eligibility requirements, as your application will not move on to Stage 2 if it is determined to be ineligible.

Basic eligibility criteria:

1. The application is complete: All of the required information is provided and submitted through the online application platform by the deadline.
2. The application is in response to the Grand Challenge: Applicants must make a direct or very compelling indirect link as to how their innovation addresses the Grand Challenge. If the innovation does not address the Grand Challenge, then it may be disqualified.
3. The application is in English.
4. The innovation is a physical, tangible, actual thing or process by the closing of the application deadline. The innovation needs to be more than an idea on paper or a theoretical concept. If the development stage is unclear from what is provided in the application, the application may be disqualified.

In Stage 1, you will need to decide if you will participate in Stage 3, the REVISION stage. You will be randomly assigned to one of two groups – automatically opted-in to Revision Group or automatically opted-out of Revision Group. No matter what group you are assigned you, you can change your status to the alternative.

1. Opt-in to Revision Group: Choose to share your technical application with at least one other team within the competition. If you select this option, you will receive peer feedback on your application in Stage 3, and you will have one week to improve and revise your application.
2. Opt-out to Revision Group: Choose to keep your application private and receive no feedback. You will not be given any additional time to revise or improve your application.

For both options, applicants are required to read and provide feedback to a set number of applications.

STAGE 2: GIVE FEEDBACK

On Monday, March 16th, all applications that are eligible will be notified to move forward to Stage 2, the feedback stage.

Details

Our goals for the impacts of this challenge are to provide a larger community of practice that can help support and accelerate innovations and to help improve the overall quality of the applications that are being submitted. To achieve these goals, and harness the science of innovation itself, we have been working to design a feedback mechanism that allows applicants to receive useful feedback on their proposals if they would like. The applicants are also required to provide useful feedback to others, and the quality of that feedback will also be considered as part of their overall application. Although prizes and challenges are powerful as tools of competition, we can also use cooperation, such as peer feedback as a way of helping us solve this challenge.

Your team will have 2 weeks to provide feedback on a set number of competing applications. We expect that your team will receive somewhere between 3-5 applications (the exact number will be determined after the application window closes).

Your comments should be as constructive and helpful as possible to help improve the quality of the application. The feedback should focus on how to strengthen the application around the key criteria, impact, design, adoption and financial viability. Anyone who is listed as a collaborator (co-author) on your application may provide the feedback.

You will be asked to provide half a page to a page of feedback per application, with a limit of 350 words. We are looking for 1-2 key insights that may be most helpful to improving the application, and quality is more important than quantity.

The feedback is not anonymous. Research has shown that transparent peer feedback can lead to significant outcomes in your work. This is an opportunity to capitalize on the power of collaboration with your peers to improve your innovation. At Conservation X Labs, we will be studying how it influences outcomes and let you know what we find. This feedback could lead to new team-members, mergers with similar projects, and new approaches that significantly improve your solution

Your peers will be scoring the quality of your team’s feedback as part of your overall score. Giving feedback is required of all applicants, and the feedback score will be worth 5% of your total application score. So it is in your interest to make your best efforts to help others.

You have a chance to win additional funding through your feedback. If your feedback is highly ranked, and the application in which you provide feedback wins the competition, your team will receive an additional $2,500.

STAGE 3: REVISE

On Tuesday, March 31st, all competing teams that opted-in to the Revision Group will receive the written feedback on their applications from 3-5 reviewers, and have one week to make final revisions to their applications. All revisions and feedback scores must be completed by Tuesday, April 7, 2020 11:59 PM EDT. Those who have opted-out of the Revision Group will not have that opportunity.

Details

At this stage, you will receive feedback that your peers submitted in Stage 2.

First, you will need to provide an evaluation of all the feedback that you receive on a score from 0-10. It is very important that you do so honestly and fairly, and we will review the feedback scores in the case of any irregularity. We will provide a scoring rubric for you to follow. This score is considered as part of the applicant’s overall score. You are required to submit feedback scores before you submit your final, revised application. 

Second, you may use this feedback to revise and improve your application before it is submitted to the external reviewers during this one week revision period.

STAGE 4: EXTERNAL EVALUATION OF APPLICATIONS

After April 7, 2020, 11:59 PM EDT, teams that opted-in to the Revision Group will no longer be able to make revisions to applications. All applications will be forwarded to panels of external reviewers and judges. Your applications will be reviewed and scored based on the selection criteria.

Details

The reviewers and judges will select the top 20-25 semi- finalists to advance to the next application round (the exact number will depend on the overall numbers of applicants).

Semi-finalists will be notified in early June, 2020. Semi-finalists will gain access to a second application. They will have about 3 weeks to prepare and submit the second application.

Reviewers and judges will evaluate the semi-finalists’ applications and select the top 10-15 finalists. Finalists will be notified in July, 2020.

STAGE 5: FINALISTS' PITCHES AND INTERVIEWS, late July - early August 2020

Ten to fifteen finalists will be notified in July, 2020, and allowed a short period of time to prepare for virtual presentations and interviews with Grand Challenge judges. Judges will evaluate the applications, pitches, and interviews to select a set of prize-winning applications. Winners will be selected and announced at the closing event in August - September 2020.

Selection Criteria

The total prize pool is worth $750,000 with $100,000 earmarked for the Microsoft Artisanal Mining AI for Earth Award. All eligible applications will be evaluated based on the following criteria. 

1. Impact (Biodiversity Conservation | Water Quality, Quantity, and Hydrology | Human Security | No Inadvertent Impacts): This Grand Challenge seeks innovations that will have tangible, net-positive impacts on biodiversity conservation, water resources (including quality, quantity, and hydrology), and/or  improve human health and/or human security. Applicants must also acknowledge and propose mitigation efforts for any significant inadvertent effects that the innovation may have on biodiversity conservation, water resources, environmental security, human health, and human security.
2. Design of the Innovation (Transformative | Novel | Creative | Technical Feasibility): This Grand Challenge seeks innovations that are technically feasible, demonstrate a thorough understanding of the specific need (e.g. problem), and are thoughtfully designed to address the specific need. In addition, it seeks transformative innovations that are different from those currently being deployed and have the potential to transform ASM for the better. 
3. Adoption and Scalability (Adoption | Adaptability): This Grand Challenge seeks innovations that are designed with the users/customers in-mind throughout the design and the deployment of the innovation in order to increase the likelihood of mass adoption of the innovation. 
4. Business and Financial Viability (Financial Sustainability): This Grand Challenge seeks innovators that demonstrate an understanding of how they will finance their innovation over time, if and how it will generate revenue, and what risks need to be mitigated in order for it to be viable.

For more detailed information on how submissions are evaluated, please read pages 24-35 of the Grand Challenge handbook here.

Guidelines and Rules 

To access the application, go to the following URL: https://conservationxlabs.smapply. o/prog/artisanal_mining_grand_challenge/ 

Applications will be created and submitted through the Survey Monkey Apply online platform. You will need to register and create an account to start your application. If you already have a Survey Monkey account associated with your email address, you may need to reset your password. You might also need to verify your email address. Pay attention to the instructions while creating your Survey Monkey Apply account and read emails sent from “noreply@mail.smapply.io” 

After you create your account in Survey Monkey Apply: 

• Select the “Apply” button in the Survey Monkey Apply portal. A text box will pop-up asking you to “Name your application.” Write an appropriate title for your innovation in this text box.
• Complete the three “tasks” in the application: Demographic Information Form, First Round Technical Submission, and a short video/image upload. 
• Note that you may add collaborators to the application. Collaborators can view and edit the application. 
• You must complete all of the required “tasks’“ in the application and select “Review and Submit” by the deadline. 

Before you begin your application, please read through this Challenge Handbook. The Handbook will step you through the application process, rules, guidelines, evaluation criteria, and the Grand Challenge terms and conditions. 

• Please fill out the application form in the English language only. 
• Applicants must provide valid contact details to allow the Artisanal Mining Grand Challenge administrators to contact them to communicate any information related to the competition. 
• The Challenge Administrators encourage participants to complete the application form and submit it before the Challenge deadline (March 1, 2020 at 11:59 PM EST/New York). 
• Applicants are encouraged to review the evaluation criteria and application form fields in the Grand Challenge Handbook before starting the application. Applicants can also download the entire application form in Survey Monkey Apply. 
• Please provide succinct responses and stay within the stipulated word count for each response. 
• All participants are responsible for applying for legal protection for any intellectual property (IP) that they believe forms part of their application. All participants entering the competition will do so at their own risk if they have not provisionally filed for IP protection prior to entering the Challenge. Participants can be assured that any IP, whether granted or contained within a provisional application, will be protected through the application and review process of the competition.