GICHD Innovation Award 2025 – Announcing Our Two Winners!
We are thrilled to announce the two winners of the GICHD Innovation Award 2025! These outstanding innovators have demonstrated exceptional creativity and practical insight in addressing key challenges in mine action.
The GICHD Innovation Award 2025 was launched to engage the scientific and research community, encouraging innovators, researchers, and problem-solvers to develop ideas that respond to real-world needs in the sector. This initiative fostered fresh thinking, connecting innovation with practical application to drive measurable impact in mine action.
Join us in celebrating the achievements of this year’s winners as they push the boundaries of innovation and inspire new solutions for a safer world.
The Award winners
Award 1: Improving the Accuracy of Estimating EO Hazardous Areas
- Winner consortium: Japan International Cooperation Agency, Cambodian Mine Action Centre, and NEC Laboratories Europe GmbH
- Project: Exploring AI-Assisted Survey for Humanitarian Mine Action: A Pilot Study in Cambodia
- This pilot explores how artificial intelligence and satellite imagery can support survey teams in identifying hazardous areas more precisely, helping to save time, reduce costs, and increase safety.
Award 2: Quantifying Residual Risk in Land Release
- Winner consortium: EODynamics AB and Matthew Hartung
- Project: Applying the FAIR Model to Quantify Residual Risk in Humanitarian Land Release
- This approach adapts the FAIR model — a widely used risk-quantification framework — to help practitioners better estimate and communicate residual risk after clearance operations.
The winning submissions received a CHF 4,000 prize and presented their work on 28 October 2025 in Luxembourg.
Knowledge Base: Full Paper Submission
In addition to the award-winning submissions outlined above, this section features full paper submissions from participants who responded to the Innovation Award call.
Problem Statement 1: Improving the accuracy of estimating explosive ordnance hazardous areas
- Description: Dynamic Estimation of Explosive Ordnance Hazardous Areas Using AI and Cap Estimating Vectors (CEVs)
- From Prediction to Prevention: Scaling AI for a Humanitarian Mine Action Operations Toolkit ("COMPASS")
- AI-Driven Storytelling and Risk Education: Voices from the Land
- Concept Paper: To Develop a Mathmetical Model/ Software to Predict and Improve the Accuracy of Estimating Explosive Ordnance Hazardous Areas
- Using Open-Source Data to Improve Accuracy of Hazardous Area Estimation for Explosive Remnants of War
- A Decentralized AI-Driven Platform for Community-Based Risk Mapping of Explosive Ordnance Contamination
- Description: A Data-Driven Machine Learning Framework for Improving the Accuracy of Explosive Ordnance Hazardous Area Estimation
- Data-Driven Precision: AI-Enhanced Digital Twin System for Probabilistic Estimation of Explosive Ordnance (EO) Hazardous Areas
- Modernizing Hazard Area Marking in Ukraine through QR Codes and Tiered-Access Benchmarks: A Scalable Model for Risk Communication and Clearance Coordination
Problem Statement 2: Quantifying Residual Risk in Land Release
- Description: A Community-Based Toolkit for Quantifying Residual Risk in Land Release
- Dynamic Residual Risk Scoring System (DRRS): A Data-Driven Model to Support Decision-Making in Land Release for Humanitarian Mine Action
- Smart Risk Analysis and Resource Allocation System in Mine Action Based on Environmental and Predictive Data
- Addressing the Social Value Gap: Integrating SROI in Landmine Action Decision Making in Ukraine
- Quantifying Residual Risk in Land Release: An AI-Based Approach for Evidence-Based Risk Management in Humanitarian Mine Action
All submissions listed above have been published with the explicit consent of the respective authors. The views, findings, and opinions expressed in these papers are those of the authors alone and do not necessarily reflect the views of the GICHD.
Any personal contact details included in the papers are provided by the authors for contacting, professional reference purposes and are published as submitted, in accordance with the authors’ consent.
The Award
Incentives and recognition
The Awardee(s) will be given the opportunity to showcase their idea at the upcoming GICHD Innovation Conference 2025, explore avenues for partnerships, and receive a monetary prize of CHF 4000 as recognition of their achievement.
Target Audience
Individuals, organizations, and consortiums that bring diverse perspectives and expertise from a variety of sectors including academia, technology providers, and entrepreneurs.
Evaluation
An independent panel of experts will review the submissions based on evaluation criteria including; innovation, feasibility, scalability and potential impact. The panel will include experts from mine action, academia, technology, the GICHD, as well as mine action donors.
Timeline overview
| Deadline for submission of abstracts | 20 May 2025 |
| Communication of shortlisted participants | 28 May 2025 |
| Deadline for submission of full papers (selected participants) | 15 July 2025 |
| Communication of final participants | 05 August 2025 |
| Presentations to the award panel (final participants) | 06 - 31 August 2025 |
| Award decision and announcement | 01 September 2025 |
| Award ceremony/GICHD Innovation Conference 2025 | 28 - 30 October 2025 |
Point of contact
For additional information about the Award, please contact Alain Nellen at a.nellen@gichd.org
Protection of personal data: By participating in the GICHD Innovation Award 2025, you consent to the Privacy Notice for GICHD Events. Requests or questions about how your personal data will be used can be sent to innovation@gichd.org. For additional information about the Award, please contact Alain Nellen (a.nellen@gichd.org)
Donors
The GICHD Innovation Award was made possible thanks to the financial support of our donors.
Federal Department of Foreign Affairs (FDFA) Switzerland