Expo City Dubai Foundation has awarded funding to seven global projects under its Global Innovators Programme, focused on tackling extreme heat challenges across the Global South.
The selected initiatives address urgent issues in waste management, agriculture, energy and construction, with implementation planned across Asia, Africa, South America and the Middle East.
The eighth cohort attracted more than 1,000 applications from 84 countries, highlighting strong global innovation in climate resilience.
Winners were chosen by an independent judging panel including representatives from Emirates Airline and ENGIE.
The selected organisations come from Egypt, Morocco, Peru, India and Nigeria, and will each receive up to $100,000 in funding, along with technical support, visibility and access to global networks.
Projects include Morocco’s Ecodome Maroc, which revives traditional building methods using local materials to create sustainable, heat-resistant bricks for rural infrastructure.
India’s Mercredi Solutions converts wheat straw into animal feed to support farmers and improve livestock resilience, while Resilience AI develops real-time, AI-driven heat data to guide targeted cooling interventions.
Other innovations include Peru’s Greendeal, which turns non-recyclable plastic into heat-resistant construction panels, and Nigeria’s Moon Innovations, which deploys modular solar systems to support food, health and livelihoods in vulnerable communities.
Egypt’s Visenleer produces cooling textiles from ocean waste and seaweed to reduce heat in community spaces, while India’s Fuselage Innovations uses drone analytics to detect heat stress and improve agricultural productivity.
Now supporting more than 200 entrepreneurs from 97 countries, the programme has reached over six million people globally.
Expo City Dubai Foundation continues to position the initiative as a platform for scalable, climate-focused solutions that combine innovation, sustainability and social impact.
Yousuf Caires, Executive Director, Expo City Dubai Foundation, said: “We are delighted to announce our latest cohort of global innovators leaving a lasting impact on the world. The strong response is a testament to the wealth of ideas available to tackle extreme heat – a crucial and time-sensitive challenge that can only be successfully addressed by working collaboratively. These projects hold immense potential across a range of industries, and we are honoured to play a small part in helping them scale.
“We celebrate this milestone as we proudly mark a decade since announcing our first cohort in 2016 – as part of our first chapter as Expo Live. Collaboration and innovation to drive progress remains at the heart of everything we do, and we are determined to continue advancing solutions to some of the world’s most pressing issues, proving that – even within a shifting global landscape – purposeful action can and must persevere to secure a sustainable future for all.” -OGN/TradeArabia News Service
