The EDF Pulse Awards aim to support and spotlight the men and women who are imagining tomorrow's low-carbon world through innovative solutions that carry us towards carbon neutrality. In 2024, EDF will reward the most innovative and pioneering projects in decarbonisation-related fields. Start-ups and projects within the EDF Group[1] have until 1 March 2024 to submit their applications.
For this new edition, EDF has defined 5 categories linked to its raison d'être, which is to build a net zero energy future with electricity and innovative solutions and services, to help save the planet and drive wellbeing and economic development.
- Enabling customers to play a part in their decarbonisation: this applies to the men and women who speed up the development of solutions and services that enable the decarbonisation of energy uses by simplifying them and making them accessible to as many people as possible.
- Optimising and ramping up the production and storage of low-carbon electricity: this applies to the men and women whose projects will optimise the performance of low-carbon electricity production and storage facilities or speed up the development of new solutions.
- Developing viable decentralised energy systems: this applies to the men and women putting forward relevant innovations to meet the growing demand for energy autonomy (buildings, local authorities, industry).
- Developing solutions for carbon capture, use and offsetting: this applies to the men and women who develop new solutions for carbon capture solutions, quality offsetting and captured carbon use.
- Contributing to the EDF Group's operational excellence projects: this category is reserved exclusively for internal projects aimed at identifying innovative solutions to strengthen the Group's overall performance.
Applications will be reviewed by a committee of subject-matter specialists and panels made up of EDF Group senior staff.
The winning start-ups in each category will receive a cash prize of 20,000 along with tailored support to consider synergies with the EDF Group.
Furthermore, at the end of the competition, all the winners will be brought together to find out more about the EDF ecosystem through meetings with innovative project leads and company management. They will also join the EDF Pulse alumni network featuring winners from previous editions.
Since 2014, the EDF Pulse Awards have yielded more than 3,600 innovative projects. Nearly 200 of these projects have benefited from customised support to accelerate their development.
A 2024 edition in four stages
January 15 - March 1, 2024: Application
April 12, 2024 : Finalists announced
May 6 - July 17, 2024: Coaching and preparation of the finalists
July 18, 2024: Final pitchs and award-giving ceremony
A single platform for all applicants
Once again this year, EDF Group employees will be competing in the same categories as the start-ups. The panel will reward one in-house project and one start-up in each of the first four categories.
To enter the competition, start-ups and Group employees should submit their applications on the website https://www.edf.fr/en/pulse/edf-pulse-awards by 1 March 2024.
Julien Villeret, EDF Group Chief Innovation Officer, states: "For the tenth year, the EDF Pulse Awards have been rewarding innovators who are shaping the low-carbon world of tomorrow. In the face of a climate emergency, we need their entrepreneurial energy to inspire us and drive us to excel. Throughout the EDF Pulse 2024 Awards, we are calling on participants to come forward, from both inside and outside the Group, to accelerate the development of solutions that will enable us to meet this challenge. We invite you to join this community of agents of change, who share our vision of CO -neutral energy serving equally the environment, human wellbeing, and economic development."
