Mission Innovation Champions (MIC) was a programme to celebrate innovative individuals who are accelerating the clean energy revolution. Carrot worked with dozens of representatives from the Mission Innovation initiative, a multi-national funding collaborative, to identify and celebrate cohorts of Fellows (i.e., Champions) in both 2019 and 2020. This was not a “business as usual” programme. At the time, it catalyzed a completely new effort to recognize outstanding talent critical to advancing the most vital clean energy research and development (R&D) globally and to connect them to a network of international leaders. By supporting cross-border exchanges of ideas and building a community of visionaries committed to the promise of clean energy R&D, this program helped to activate waves of technical and political endorsements.
MIC was open to individuals with a track record of progressing creative new ideas that can drive the pace and scale of clean energy—the people who are inventing the products and services of the future or discovering the science that underpins them. Carrot worked with 45 national sponsors to garner interest and engage nominators, candidates, and judges from the 21 participating countries—all within a shorter-than-usual planning and registration period. These efforts include robust online research, curated communications to qualified individuals, collaboration with points of contact in each region and with former Champions to promote and nominate qualified candidates, material translation, and more.
For the second round in 2020, almost the entirety of the competition was conducted during the COVID-19 pandemic. The registration deadline was March 18 with a submission deadline of April 1. A robust volume of participation occurred at a time when many people were distracted and/or distraught by the threats of the global pandemic. In spite of those threats, participation in the MIC exceeded expectations, and the transition from registered candidates to those who were able to complete the application process exceeded every sponsor's expectations. Our goal was to enroll at least three candidates from each of the 21 participating countries – we exceeded this goal by over 535% with 340 total registrants. Today, MIC continues to represent a breakthrough approach for working alongside a broad range of international stakeholders to engage local talent with the potential to affect global change.
