Eligibility

What projects can be nominated for the AIP?

To be eligible for the Arctic Inspiration Prize, you must meet the criteria below.

The Arctic Inspiration Prize has three categories:

• $1 Million Category
• AIP Category
• Arctic Inspiration Youth Prize (AIYP) Category

Categories may differ in their eligibility requirements. Click on the prize categories below to see specific criteria.

If you have any questions you can contact the AIP Team.

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Diverse Perspectives

The Arctic Inspiration Prize is an award for diverse teams and is about teambuilding. Individuals alone cannot be nominated.

Diversity can refer to many things. It can mean including youth and Elders, people from communities large and small, grassroots groups, industry and governments, and/or people from research, philanthropy, culture, and education, etc. Diversity can mean including a variety of perspectives and experience to ensure the project is meeting the needs of the community/region or the team possesses the necessary skills required to complete the project, from program delivery to administration/finance and beyond. If your project is in several communities, you may want to consider having team members from each of those communities. While the team lead and a majority of team members must be Northerners, the project can be supported by Southern team members.

When you think about your project, it will be important to think about the different skills, expertise, and knowledge that your team will need to complete it. Then, build the team with that in mind.

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Northern Led and Managed

The Team Leader and the majority of the team are required to be Northerners as the Arctic Inspiration Prize is about inspiring Northerners to build, lead, and manage their own solutions. Northerners must lead and shape the project from inception to implementation to ensure that these projects are truly northern projects by the North and for the North.

A Northerner is defined as:

• An Indigenous person of the North preferably working and residing in the regions eligible for the AIP; or
• A non-Indigenous person working and residing in the regions eligible for the AIP.

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Age of Team Members

(AIYP only)

To be eligible, your Team Leader and more than half of your team members must be youth (30 years of age or younger). Youth must lead and shape the project from inception to implementation to ensure that these projects are truly youth projects.

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Nominee and Recipient of Funds

The entity that is nominated for the AIP (the nominee) and individuals or organizations that would receive and manage the AIP prize funds are required to be exclusively northern.

Organizations or individuals that are not exclusively northern are ineligible to receive the prize funds, even if their project is based in the North. Southern individuals or organizations can be part of the project team or provide support, however they cannot be the nominee and/or recipient of the prize funds.

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New Project

The Arctic Inspiration Prize supports new, innovative, and novel initiatives that are ready to be implemented and have a real, relevant impact in the North. It is important that nominations clearly show how the proposed project is distinct from any ongoing work by the team or others in the same area your project would impact.

What is eligible:

• A completely new initiative.
• An initiative new to your community that is inspired by work in another community — as long as your team has not already implemented it elsewhere.
• A pilot project that has gathered community input or data showing the approach is relevant, effective, needed, and wanted in the community. This type of project may be eligible for funding to scale up or be fully implemented.

What is not eligible:

• Projects that are simply a continuation or expansion of work already being done.
• Replicating an existing project (even if successful) in a new location by the same team.
• Existing projects that are not collecting data to demonstrate community need or impact.

Key difference:

• Pilot project ready to grow: Has tested an idea in a limited way, collected evidence of success or need, and is now ready to be implemented at a larger scale.
• Ongoing project expanding: Has already been fully implemented and is now being continued, expanded, or duplicated — this is not eligible.

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Knowledge Basis

Proposed projects should be based upon traditional knowledge, scientific research, and/or practical knowledge (e.g. a small pilot project) in order to be eligible.

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Relevance to the North

Teams and projects should address opportunities or challenges that are relevant and of importance to the people and communities of the Canadian Arctic. Northerners must lead and shape the project from inception to implementation to ensure that these projects are truly relevant to the North.

A project can have one or more focus areas, such as (but not limited to) education; health and wellbeing; culture, arts and language; science and traditional knowledge; climate change; food security; and the economy.

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Addressing Causes Rather than Symptoms

Proposed projects should address the root cause(s) of an Arctic issue, rather than its symptoms. How the project will address the root cause(s) should be clearly outlined in the nomination. For example, a project that aims to prevent oil spills addresses a cause; a project that aims to clean up oil spills addresses a symptom. This applies to all projects – including those of a socioeconomic and human health nature.

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Region of Impact

Proposed projects are required to be carried out and have impact within the regions eligible for the Arctic Inspiration Prize: Yukon, Northwest Territories, Inuvialuit Settlement Region, Nunavut, Nunavik, and Nunatsiavut.

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Impact of Project

($1 Million and AIP categories only)

Proposed projects should bring knowledge to action with lasting impacts. Therefore, projects that only collect and store knowledge are not eligible. Environmental monitoring that goes beyond just collecting and storing knowledge (for example, that includes education, job creation, etc.) is eligible.

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Immediate and Long-term Impacts

Single, short-term activities such as conferences, workshops and meetings are not eligible unless clearly embedded in a broader action plan.

$1 Million Category

Proposed projects should lead to an immediate and long-term impact across a large geographic area or a profound impact in a smaller area.

AIP Category

Proposed projects should lead to an immediate impact in a larger or smaller geographic area, preferably in the long term.

AIYP Category

Your project should bring about action that has immediate impact.

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Secular and Non-Partisan

Proposed projects are required to provide secular, non-partisan solutions that do not contravene the laws of Indigenous self-governments and land claims agreements. (Note that this does not exclude projects that involve Indigenous ceremony, healing, traditional practice, etc.)

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Total Project Cost

($1 Million and AIP categories only)

The Arctic Inspiration Prize aims to inspire diverse teams to initiate innovative projects with social impact. The total project cost cannot be more than twice what you are requesting from the AIP.

$1 Million Category

Requests in this category are always $1 million. Therefore, the total project cost cannot be more than $2 million.

AIP Category

Requests in this category can be up to $500,000. The total project cost cannot be more than twice the amount requested from the AIP. For example, a request of $400,000 from the AIP to help fund a large project of $2 million for a building, infrastructure, or other large initiative would not be eligible.

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Project Buy-In

Proposed projects for the $1 Million and AIP are required to have buy-in from partners and are encouraged to have buy-in from team members. Proposed AIYP projects would preferably have some buy-in from people or groups.

Buy-in can be in the form of in-kind or cash contributions. Buy-in from partners and team members demonstrates engagement and support for a project and will therefore help to sustain the project beyond its planned duration. It will also help to attract additional funds from others in the long term.

$1 Million Category

Proposed projects require buy-in from partners and are encouraged to have buy-in from team members. Buy-in can be in the form of in-kind or cash contributions. Buy-in from partners is required to be at least $200,000 (20% of the amount requested from the AIP) but cannot exceed $1 million. For example, a buy-in amount of $500,000 (50%) would be considered strong.

AIP Category

Proposed projects require buy-in from partners and are encouraged to have buy-in from team members. Buy-in can be in the form of in-kind or cash contributions. Buy-in from partners is required to be at least 20% of the amount requested from the AIP, but cannot exceed the total amount requested from the AIP. For example, a project with a total project budget of $750,000 that is requesting $500,000 from the AIP and has $250,000 of buy-in (50% of the amount requested from the AIP) would be considered strong.

AIYP Category

Preferably your project should have some buy-in from people or groups.

GLOSSARY:

Buy-in

Buy-in refers to the support or investment that individuals, groups, or organizations give to a project. It indicates that stakeholders are actively engaged and have a stake in the success of the effort. Buy-in can be either financial or non-financial.

In-kind Contribution

An in-kind contribution is a kind of buy-in. Instead of cash, people contribute goods, services, or time that support a project.

Cash Contribution

A cash contribution is a kind of buy-in when partners provide money to a project.

NOTE 1: Only in-kind contributions directly related to the project activities can be counted as buy-in. For example, the in-kind contribution of someone’s entire salary can only be counted if all of that individual’s work is for the project. Otherwise, only the proportion of time that the individual will spend working on the project can be counted.

NOTE 2: Letters of Support are required to confirm in-kind or cash contributions from partners listed in the project budget. If needed, partners or organizations can note in their letters that the contributions are conditional on the team winning the Arctic Inspiration Prize. Any cash or in-kind partner contributions that are not supported by a Letter of Support will not be considered as part of the project buy-in, and having less than 20% confirmed buy-in will result in a nomination’s ineligibility.

NOTE 3: Only buy-in from partners (not team members) counts towards the 20% minimum buy-in required to be eligible for the Arctic Inspiration Prize. Buy-in from team members is encouraged and will show the selection committees that team members believe in the project and are committed to it.

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Official AIP Ambassador

Teams are required to be nominated by an official Ambassador/Nominator of the Arctic Inspiration Prize who is not connected to the project and team in any way. Projects nominated by team members, individuals from connected organizations or groups, or individuals who are in any way connected to the activities, outputs, funding or management/administration of the project will not be eligible.

Ideally your Ambassador/Nominator is from the region (or one of the regions) impacted by your project. If this is not possible, an Ambassador/Nominator from another region can nominate your project. For example, if all Ambassadors/Nominators from your region are connected to your project, then you can expand your search.

See the list of official Ambassadors/Nominators.

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Maintaining Fairness in Nominations

Arctic Inspiration Prize Trustees, staff, and Selection Committee members and Rideau Hall Foundation staff and Board members are not eligible to be nominees or Ambassadors/Nominators for the Arctic Inspiration Prize during their terms, and for six months following the end of their term.

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Nomination Template Required

Teams are required to use the Nomination Template for this prize cycle and complete all sections. Incomplete nominations or those not in the template for this prize cycle are not eligible.

See the Nomination Templates and Guides.

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Submit by the Due Date

Submit the nomination electronically to the Arctic Inspiration Prize office by the due date. Nominations received after the due date will not be accepted.

See the Get Nominated! page for this prize cycle’s due date and instructions on how to submit your nomination.

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