The UArctic Entrepreneurship Fund is an initiative of the Managing Small and Medium Sized Enterprises in the North Thematic Network. The fund supports the development of incubator stage services and products that aim to have a direct, beneficial impact on Arctic communities or the environment. The Fund was created highlight and advance innovative and inspiring entrepreneurial ideas focused on the North.
Entrepreneurship in the Arctic is a cornerstone for sustainable development, innovation, and resilience. Congratulations to the 2024 UArctic Entrepreneurship Fund winners. The 2024 UArctic Entrepreneurship Fund winners showcase the creativity, determination, and community-centered focus that help drive sustainable development in the North. Their projects address key challenges while creating positive impacts for communities and the environment. The UEF is proud to support these inspiring entrepreneurs as they work to further develop their ideas into tangible solutions.
The 2024 recipients of the UArctic Entrepreneurship Fund:
$5,000 – Hillary King (Lead) - Reclaim Community Collaborative Design Organization Inc. (Reclaim Community CDO) is a social enterprise, based just outside of St. John’s, NL, aiming to address Canada's housing crisis by promoting Community-Led Housing (CLH) through the CLH Ecosystem Support Network (CLH-ESN). Reclaim offers start-to-finish consulting services and mentorship for community-led housing projects, offering services in project management, policy and governance, sociocractic governance, human-centred design, and financial modelling. Reclaim focuses on knowledge-sharing, collaboration, and supporting citizen developers to create affordable, community-driven housing solutions. Reclaim's initiative will support Northern communities in developing housing that meets local unique needs. It highlights the challenges faced by citizen developers, such as longer project timelines, higher costs, and frequent burnout, which result in a low success rate of about 30%. To address these issues, the organization offers the CLH-ESN, connecting housing experts and over 260 toolkit items, consulting and education services.
$6200 – Serena Allen (Lead) - AirVitalize Innovations, a company based in Fairbanks, Alaska, develops hardware to clean outdoor air and improve public health. Fairbanks is one of the most polluted areas in the United States and suffers from severe air pollution due to residential wood burning. AirVitalize's Vita 1.0 technology captures outdoor particulate matter using innovative electrochemical and aerodynamic methods, aiming to create healthier air in outdoor spaces. The company plans to leverage support and community backing to launch a pilot initiative in Fairbanks, with potential for broader applications in other polluted regions and industries.
Congratulations to both winners, and thank you to everyone who applied in the 2024 call!
Read more about the UArctic Entrepreneurship Fund.