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Stay safe in the heat: Drink plenty of water, spend time in the shade, and visit the first aid station at Soissons Landing if you feel unwell. Click here for important warm weather visitor information.

Stay safe in the heat: Drink plenty of water, spend time in the shade, and visit the first aid station at Soissons Landing if you feel unwell. Click here for important warm weather visitor information.

How to Apply

Com­plete the Project Appli­ca­tion and sub­mit to livinglab@​govisland.​org. Project Appli­ca­tion avail­able for down­load at gov​is​land​.org/​b​u​s​i​n​e​s​s​-​o​p​p​o​r​t​u​n​ities.

Eli­gi­bil­i­ty

  • Appli­cants must be incor­po­rat­ed as a legal enti­ty and must be work­ing on urban cli­mate solu­tions (e.g., hard­ware, soft­ware, mate­ri­als research, pol­i­cy, or inno­v­a­tive busi­ness and financ­ing models).
  • Appli­cants should iden­ti­fy a crit­i­cal mile­stone that requires a tem­po­rary pilot site to sup­port prod­uct devel­op­ment and deploy­ment (e.g., solu­tions val­i­da­tion, beta test­ing, data collection.)
  • The Trust strong­ly encour­ages appli­ca­tions from under­rep­re­sent­ed founders and non­prof­it lead­ers, includ­ing local­ly based and minor­i­ty- and women-owned enter­pris­es. Pref­er­ence will be giv­en to small busi­ness­es and non­prof­it orga­ni­za­tions with 50 employ­ees or fewer.

Awards and Ben­e­fits for Pilot Partners

  • Access to a project site (with no fee) on Gov­er­nors Island under a 3- to 12-month license agree­ment. Longer-term tem­po­rary projects may be con­sid­ered on a case-by-case basis.
  • Cli­mate Solu­tions Chal­lenge: A $10,000 grant or non-dilu­tive fund­ing award and access to a com­mon pool of $100,000 in addi­tion­al deploy­ment support.
  • Tech­ni­cal sup­port on project fea­si­bil­i­ty, sit­ing, and per­mit­ting. (Note: Eli­gi­ble pilot sites on Gov­er­nors Island are man­aged by the Trust for Gov­er­nors Island as the sole own­er and operator.)
  • Pro­mo­tion­al oppor­tu­ni­ties as an inau­gur­al Pilot Part­ner with the Cen­ter for Cli­mate Solutions.
  • Oppor­tu­ni­ties to engage with key stake­hold­ers and men­tor future cohorts.

Pro­gram Requirements

  • Ensur­ing safe and respon­si­ble deploy­ment, oper­a­tion, and main­te­nance of their cli­mate solu­tion sub­ject to a stan­dard license agree­ment for site access. This includes and is not lim­it­ed to design and per­mit­ting, site prepa­ra­tion and restora­tion, trans­port and instal­la­tion, a cer­tifi­cate of insur­ance, and pro­vid­ing reg­u­lar on-site over­sight and main­te­nance dur­ing the pilot period.
  • Coor­di­nat­ing with the Gov­er­nors Island Liv­ing Lab and Trust for Gov­er­nors Island on pro­mo­tion­al oppor­tu­ni­ties, such as inter­pre­tive sig­nage, web and social assets, press, and events.
  • Pro­vid­ing a secu­ri­ty deposit. This may be set up as a retainage of the Chal­lenge grant award, plus retainage of 10% of any addi­tion­al deploy­ment funds award­ed from the com­mon pool.
  • For the gen­er­al rolling call, Pilot Part­ners are respon­si­ble for all project costs, includ­ing a secu­ri­ty deposit, site prepa­ra­tion, and restora­tion to orig­i­nal condition.

Pro­gram Lim­i­ta­tions and Legal Requirements

Project must meet the fol­low­ing requirements:

  • Projects must be temporary.
  • Projects must meet all local code, per­mit­ting, and reg­u­la­to­ry requirements.
  • Project teams are respon­si­ble for pro­fes­sion­al design, per­mit­ting, expe­dit­ing, or engi­neer­ing ser­vices to sup­port deployment.

Due to the Island’s unique and evolv­ing envi­ron­ment, the Trust cur­rent­ly has lim­it­ed abil­i­ty to sup­port the fol­low­ing project types:

  • Trans­porta­tion: AVs, EVs, and grid-con­nect­ed EV charg­ing solutions.
  • Build­ings: Grid-con­nect­ed build­ing sys­tems inter­ven­tions, where the major­i­ty of Trust-con­trolled his­toric build­ings are vacant with lim­it­ed crit­i­cal build­ing systems.
  • Food Sys­tems: Urban agri­cul­ture demon­stra­tions requir­ing more than 0.5 acres.

Can I apply to both tracks?
Applicants should apply to the track best suited to their project.

If my application is not accepted, am I eligible for future cycles?
Yes, applicants may re-submit in a future cycle.

I am a developer. Can I submit a development proposal through this call?
Developers should submit inquiries to realestate@govisland.org.

Isn’t Governors Island only accessible by ferry? How can I transport equipment?
Governors Island ferries operate 7 days a week on a 30-minute interval, including during business hours. Vehicle permits are available from 7:00 AM to 9:30 AM on weekdays. The ferry can accommodate a range of vehicles and trucks. The maximum vehicle weight is 40 tons.

Where can I send additional questions?
All questions must be sent to livinglab@govisland.org.

Where can I sign up for updates?
Click here to sign up for email updates about Climate Solutions on Governors Island.