People in the field testing new solutions

Environment and Climate Action Innovation Fund | Incubator

The Environment and Climate Action Innovation Fund supports UNHCR colleagues to explore, test, and scale environmentally sustainable solutions with communities that ensure protection, adaptation, and resilience, while helping preserve and rehabilitate the environment.

What we offer

Beyond funding, the Environment and Climate Action Innovation Fund provides teams with technical guidance, learning, and operational support to strengthen environmental and climate-focused solutions. Each selected initiative receives:

Seed funding to design and test solutions

Financial support

Mentorship from innovation and sector experts.

Technical, operational, & project management support

Technical guidance on design, prototyping, and evaluation.

Emphasis on learning & evidence generation

Peer learning through a global network of innovators.

Peer-to-peer exchange

Who can apply

Internal UNHCR teams and colleagues, including:

Country operations
Regional bureaux
Headquarters divisions
Multi-functional and cross-entity teams

Internal applications only:

Applicants must be UNHCR staff or affiliated personnel
Individual applications are accepted if endorsed by a UNHCR operation or division

Boost your application

Clear environment or climate-related challenge identified impacting operations and protection
Context-appropriate and locally-driven solution
Potential to improve adaptive capacity and resilience of displaced people and promote environmental sustainabilit
Opportunities for long-term sustainability, learning, reuse, or scale across UNHCR

Learn more about the application process

Before applying, make sure you read our FAQs (109.04 KB)
And familiarize yourself with our current Areas of Exploration (820.44 KB)

Environment & Climate Action Innovation, by the numbers

31
projects supported
People participating in innovation projects supported through the UNHCR Innovation Accelerator.

Environment & Climate Action Innovation projects

Stories & insights from Environment & Climate Action Innovation

Get in touch with the Environment & Climate Action Innovation team

Connect with the Environment and Climate Action Innovation team to share your idea and learn how we can support climate-smart innovation across UNHCR.

Email us today