Teams from 29 countries advance to the next stage of competition to create affordable, accessible, scalable desalination solutions 

NEW YORK, NY, September 22, 2025 – XPRIZE, the world's leader in designing and operating large-scale incentive competitions to solve humanity's grand challenges, today announced the Qualified Teams competing in the next stage of its $119 million XPRIZE Water Scarcity competition, the largest XPRIZE in history. Sponsored by The Mohamed bin Zayed Water Initiative, this multi-year global competition is designed to drive widespread access to clean water by creating reliable, sustainable, and affordable seawater desalination solutions. The announcement was made today during Climate Week in New York City.

Water scarcity is emerging as one of the defining challenges of our century. Across the globe, 80% of the population already experiences serious threats to water supply, and by 2030, demand will outpace supply by 40%. While seas and oceans hold more than 96% of Earth’s water, desalination technologies remain relatively expensive and energy-intensive, limiting their use primarily to a small number of wealthier countries. XPRIZE Water Scarcity seeks to unlock breakthroughs that can make desalination a more viable, accessible and sustainable solution for people everywhere.

“Water is humanity’s most fundamental need, and yet billions face the growing threat of water scarcity as climate change reshapes our world,” said Anousheh Ansari, chief executive officer, XPRIZE. “Seawater desalination holds enormous promise, but current practices come with a steep price: high energy use, environmental strain, and limited accessibility. XPRIZE Water Scarcity is incentivizing innovators worldwide to design sustainable, scalable, and affordable approaches that deliver clean water without compromising the ecosystems we all depend on. Only then can desalination become a true solution for the future to benefit all.” 

From over 674 pre-registered teams across 86 countries, 143 Qualified Teams were selected through a rigorous evaluation of their proposed solutions. Teams are advancing across two tracks: reimagining System-Level Innovation (Track A) and developing Novel Materials and Methods for saltwater separation (Track B). Track A Qualified Teams (93) demonstrated strong potential to produce at least 1 m³/day of potable water by the end of 2025 and were awarded a share of $3,000,000 to support their ongoing work in the next phase of the competition. Track B Qualified Teams (50) demonstrated technical maturity and the ability to advance to the next round by proving, at a laboratory scale, the potential of new materials designed to replace conventional seawater reverse osmosis (SWRO) membranes as well as evolutionary advances that improve and adapt existing technologies, with results expected in early 2026.

“Desalination remains one of the most promising technologies available to address the growing challenge of water scarcity. Yet today, many desalination systems remain hampered by efficiency, cost and sustainability concerns, limiting their deployment in regions where clean water is needed most,” said Ayesha Al Ateeqi, Executive Director of The Mohamed bin Zayed Water Initiative. “XPRIZE Water Scarcity was established to unlock the full potential of desalination by incentivizing bold, breakthrough thinking that can overcome these barriers. Our goal is to catalyze the development of next-generation systems and materials that are not only affordable and reliable, but also sustainable and accessible for communities around the world. This is about more than technology, it’s about opportunity: to enable greater water resilience, support development in water-scarce regions, and help create a future where clean and safe water is available to all. We are proud to support this extraordinary cohort of innovators as they enter the next phase of the competition and look forward to seeing their ideas evolve into real-world solutions with transformative impact.”

Qualified Teams will now put their ideas into practice through field testing and validation. Track A teams will deploy working desalination prototypes at their chosen sites, producing at least 1,000 liters of drinking water per day over two weeks, while meeting local environmental standards. Track B teams will validate their novel separation materials and methods at lab scale, with results evaluated for technical maturity, efficiency, cost, and sustainability to prepare for live demonstrations. 

A total of $108M in milestone awards is available to Track A teams and $10.9M to Track B teams as they progress through the competition. Following Qualified Teams testing, XPRIZE will advance as many as 20 Track A Teams and as many as 30 Track B Teams as Semifinalists, awarding up to $5.3M (USD) in milestone awards. 

“The diversity and creativity of these teams give us hope for the future of water,” said Lauren Greenlee, executive vice president of Food + Water + Waste, XPRIZE. “From academic labs to deep-tech startups, and cross-disciplinary consortiums - many from the world’s most water-stressed regions - these innovators are tackling desalination from every angle. Their ideas have the potential to lower costs, reduce environmental impact, and bring seawater desalination within reach for communities that need it most.”

XPRIZE Water Scarcity is the first competition of its kind focused on disrupting desalination systems at this scale. Outside of additional milestone funding, XPRIZE will award at the conclusion of the competition:

• $40 million to the Track A winning team that can reliably produce one million liters of potable water per day at breakthrough affordability — enough to serve 10,000 people for a year (with additional prizes being awarded to runners-up).
• $8 million to the Track B team that pioneers a novel, durable desalination material or method that can operate for at least 10 years.

XPRIZE Water Scarcity is consistent with the vision of its title sponsor, The Mohamed bin Zayed Water Initiative, to support creativity and innovation aimed at addressing the threat of global water scarcity. Through its programs and initiatives, the Initiative works to raise awareness of water scarcity and to increase its prioritization on the international agenda while accelerating the development, testing and deployment at scale of transformative and sustainable technological solutions to this global challenge.

To learn more and get involved at xprize.org/water.

About XPRIZE
XPRIZE is the recognized global leader in designing and executing large-scale competitions to solve humanity's greatest challenges. For over 30 years, our unique model has democratized crowd-sourced innovation and scientifically scalable solutions that accelerate a more equitable and abundant future. Donate, learn more, and co-architect a world of abundance with us at xprize.org.

About The Mohamed bin Zayed Water Initiative
The Mohamed bin Zayed Water Initiative is dedicated to addressing global water scarcity by enabling the development and application of breakthrough technologies, raising the importance of water scarcity on the international agenda, and deploying needed water solutions to benefit people and communities around the world. In its first priority project, in March 2024 the Initiative partnered with XPRIZE Foundation to launch XPRIZE Water Scarcity – a five-year, $119 million prize. The competition is designed to drive widespread access to clean water by creating more reliable, sustainable, and affordable seawater desalination systems and membranes. In April 2025, The Mohamed bin Zayed Water Initiative launched Al Miyah Challenge for Agriculture, an AED 8 million competition to accelerate innovation in the development of technological solutions that can reduce the consumption of water in agriculture while maintaining and improving crop yield. The Challenge is open to international participants and will require aspiring teams to test and demonstrate their technology's applicability in the UAE, with potential for deployment in other locations with similar weather and climate conditions.

For more information about The Mohamed bin Zayed Water Initiative, please visit https://www.mohamedbinzayedwi.ae/