The 2015 Reed Elsevier Environmental Challenge was launched earlier this week with a call for, innovative proposals to ensure safe water and improved sanitation for at risk communities in developing countries.

Applications should be submitted by 14 April 2015 and projects should be replicable, scalable and sustainable.

The projects must also set a benchmark for innovation, have practical applicability, address equity of access, involve and impact a range of stakeholders and have community-level engagement.

Shortlisted candidates will be announced in June and invited to develop their proposals further.

Shortlisted projects will be considered by a panel of international experts, including a member of the Dutch Wash Alliance, a consortium of six NGOs in the Netherlands promoting hygienic use of sustainable water and sanitation.

The winning projects will be announced in September 2015. The first prize winner will be awarded $50 000 and the second prize winner will receive $25 000 in addition to a feature in Water Research, an official journal of the International Water Association.

This is the fifth year of the Reed Elsevier Environmental Challenge, and will be marked by a special prize of $20 000 for a collaboration project involving past winners.

The Reed Elsevier Environmental Challenge was launched in 2011 to contribute to the Water for Life Decade, an initiative launched in 2005 by the UN General Assembly to halve the number of people without sustainable access to safe drinking water and basic sanitation by 2015.

Dr Márcia Balisciano, Reed Elsevier’s Director of Corporate Responsibility said, “Through the Environmental Challenge we help people working to address the fundamental need for clean water and sanitation by giving them access to cutting edge research in the field.  We bring their important work to the attention of our expert judges and to a broad public.”