Anyone who is interested is encouraged to begin by reading the Competition Guidelines, which summarize the goals of the competition, the two tracks and their timelines, team registration, and key milestones.

We invite interested groups to view the most recent informational webinar session, which outlines the most recent udpates to the Guidelines, and describes the steps for registration. View the recording here.

The two competition tracks are designed to support near and long-term impact goals and address core fire management problems. The competition tracks will individually and jointly transform how wildfires are managed and fought.

• Track A: Space-Based Wildfire Detection and Intelligence
• Track B: Autonomous Wildfire Response

Competing teams will innovate across all aspects of firefighting—from detection and characterization of the fire to autonomous wildfire response solutions and suppression materials.

Track A: Space-Based Wildfire Detection and Intelligence

• Solutions developed for the Space-Based Wildfire Detection and Intelligence Track will address the greatest barrier to how we currently fight fires with accurate, precise and rapid, detection across vast and remote areas.
  
  In the Space-Based Wildfire Detection & Intelligence track, teams will have one minute to accurately detect all fires across a landscape larger than entire states or countries, and 10 minutes to precisely characterize and report data with the least false positives to decision-makers on the ground.

Track B: Autonomous Wildfire Response

• Solutions developed for the Autonomous Wildfire Response Track will transform how fires are managed and fought with autonomous detection, response, and suppression of incipient fires.
  
  In the Autonomous Wildfire Response track, teams have 10 minutes to autonomously detect and suppress a high-risk fire in a 1,000 km2, environmentally challenging area, leaving any decoy fires untouched.

XPRIZE Wildfire Registration officially opened on April 21, 2023.

Teams can register through the XPRIZE Prize Operations Platform (POP), the central platform for competing teams during the life cycle of the prize. POP is a virtual system that allows competing teams to interact with each other and with the XPRIZE Prize Operations team. POP is mostly used for finding team members, completing prize activities, and submitting documents for registration and testing.

Registration process:

• All prospective teams must create a free account profile on POP which enables access to the site. Click the “Login” button at the top right and create an account. After creating an account, navigate to the competitions page and click “Create a Team” on the XPRIZE Wildfire panel. This will initiate the team creation process.
• Once complete, you will have formed a team! You may invite other team members to join your team. All team members must also create a POP account.
  • Important Note: creating a Team profile is not the final step to registration. Registration is complete once a team makes the registration fee payment, and signs the competitor agreement. These activities are forthcoming.
• Visit the Activities page to complete the first prize activity, which will automatically be assigned. Monitor this page for upcoming activities, including Payment and Signing the Competitor Agreement.
• Be sure to thoroughly review the Competition Guidelines, which include information about team registration, fees and other required activities, competition timeline and milestones, and more key initial information about the competition.
• Contact wildfire@xprize.org with questions.

Upon creating a team, your team will be considered an “Interested Team” and the first activity, an initial survey of the team’s approach to the competition, will be assigned. XPRIZE suggests teams complete this activity as soon as possible.

All teams should be sure to check POP regularly and monitor for newly assigned activities. Upcoming required activities include: Registration Fee Payment, Competitor Agreement Signature, and the Qualifying Technical Submission. These activities are required to become an officially Registered Team in the competition. Be sure to review the Competition Guidelines for details.

Registration CLOSED on January 31, 2024.

XPRIZE has sole discretion to register and qualify additional teams from the close of registration on January 31, 2024. Teams that register after the standard registration must meet all the initial qualification requirements, be approved by the Judges, and pay a late registration fee of $2,000 USD. This is a limited opportunity and potential teams should contact XPRIZE directly for more details.

Registration is open from April 21, 2023 through March 31, 2024.

Important note: XPRIZE has recently confirmed a change to the registration fee which affects both competition tracks.

The XPRIZE Wildfire registration fee will remain USD $500 for the duration of the registration periods for both tracks. This means that the Early Registration deadlines are no longer applicable. Track B Autonomous Wildfire Response registration closes on March 31, 2024.

XPRIZE has sole discretion to register and qualify additional teams from the close of registration on March 31, 2024. Teams that register after the standard registration must meet all the initial qualification requirements, be approved by the Judges, and pay a late registration fee of $2,000 USD. This is a limited opportunity and potential teams should contact XPRIZE directly for more details.

The XPRIZE Wildfire prize purse is $11,000,000 USD and growing. XPRIZE Wildfire has introduced a new way to contribute: donate directly to the competition. Donations directly support the XPRIZE Wildfire competition and XPRIZE Foundation.

The prize purse is divided as follows. All prize monies are listed in US Dollars.

• A Grand Prize Purse totaling $7,000,000 will be awarded across the two competition tracks. The First Place Team in each track will receive $3,500,000.
• A milestone prize purse totaling $3,000,000 will be awarded incrementally across the two competition tracks, with $1,500,000 allocated to each track. Milestone prizes will be awarded to teams that reach key competition milestones, according to the Judging Criteria.
• A Bonus Prize totaling $1,000,000 will be awarded to one or more eligible teams across both tracks whose competition entries successfully demonstrate Accurate, Precise, and Rapid Detection.

Competing in an XPRIZE is an exciting journey that often requires a commitment of time, expertise, and resources. Registration fees are required as a simple qualifier to ensure competitors are serious about joining and have the appropriate resources to compete. All fees collected support the XPRIZE Alumni Network.

The competition entry fee is $500 per team before the registration deadline, and $2,000 during the discretionary late period (see above). Deadlines are published in the Competition Guidelines. All fees must be paid in full in order to be a registered team in the competition.

All submissions must be made through the Prize Operations Portal ahead of the submission deadlines published in the prize guidelines. Submissions sent via email will not be accepted. will not be reviewed prior to the submission deadline. You will be notified by XPRIZE when further submission guidance is published and the portal is open for submissions.

Teams can be formed by anyone, anywhere. They are often startups, university groups, small to midsize companies, high school students, families, or even individuals. Teams can have any background, including but not limited to scientific and/or technical disciplines such as engineering, chemistry, ecology, geology, biology, and others.

We believe the best new ideas can come from anyone!We always encourage teams to get in touch with one another, share resources and talent if it makes sense for you. If you’re interested in getting in touch with other teams, you can reach out wildfire@xprize.org.

Teams and individuals are encouraged to collaborate and combine skills during the competition. Teams may recruit additional experts and are permitted to add new members to their team at any time throughout the competition. Individuals may create an account on POP and apply to join active teams.

Teams may collaborate and share ideas throughout the competition. Teams may also officially merge with other teams at any time during the competition, especially to add technical and subject matter expertise to their roster. Merging teams must notify XPRIZE.

We welcome partners throughout all phases of the competition, whether you want to help recruit teams, support team success, secure an XPRIZE speaker or expert for your event, help scale winning solutions, or assist with testing operations.

XPRIZE Wildfire has introduced a new way to contribute: donate directly to the competition. 85% of your donation directly supports the XPRIZE Wildfire competition and 15% goes toward the operation of XPRIZE Foundation. Donate here. Contact wildfire@xprize.org to learn more about how to get involved, and follow the competition by subscribing to our newsletter at xprize.org/wildfire.

Teams will retain ownership of their Intellectual Property on any technology or data integration techniques and processes they bring to the competition, and which they develop as part of their competition entry. All details relating to team technology, innovations, or methods submitted to XPRIZE at the submission deadlines will remain strictly confidential unless clearly and specifically noted.

Please note that as of the date of submission, each Team must own, or hold appropriate license rights to, all technologies, methods, resources, and Intellectual Property included in the Team’s submission. Please refer to the Competitor Agreement for more details.

Observations in this track will be obtained from space in real time, defined as altitude of at least 100 km. Teams should refer to Guidelines V2.0 section 3.5.

XPRIZE anticipates this need for teams competing in Track B, and will permit teams to deploy technology in the testing area. The goal is to create testing infrastructure that is as close to the desired end goal as possible. The exact logistics and regulations guiding this forward deployment will be shared with teams closer to the testing period.

We encourage teams to share their excitement for the competition on social media, and tag @XPRIZE in your post!
Teams are invited to visit the Resources page on POP (pop.xprize.org) and consult the Team Branding and Style Guide, which has suggested language for team promotion.

If you’d like to get involved with the competition, or if you have any questions, please email us at wildfire@xprize.org.