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END DESTRUCTIVE WILDFIRES
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Designed to end destructive wildfires before they grow out of control, this competition advances and informs a holistic approach to wildfire management. It incentivizes teams to innovate firefighting technologies that transform the accuracy and precision of wildfire detection and the speed of wildfire response, allowing humanity and beneficial wildfires to safely coexist.
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Barrier
Wildfires are accelerating in frequency, intensity, and destruction—yet innovation to detect and respond has not kept pace. Many wildfires start in environmentally challenging areas and are fueled by extreme weather events, such as drought, high winds, and heatwaves. The risk to communities is increasing globally. Current detection systems and resource deployment are often too slow, fragmented, and imprecise–delaying action when every minute counts and putting lives, infrastructure, and ecosystems at greater risk.
Breakthrough
New tools are needed that can match the speed and scale of today’s wildfires. XPRIZE Wildfire is advancing technologies that detect and characterize high-risk fires in 10 minutes or less—four times faster than current best practices—and autonomously suppress them before they grow out of control. Teams are developing solutions that can operate from the ground, air, or space. These technologies will reduce the time needed to respond to potentially destructive wildfire and enable access to impenetrable environments that traditional methods cannot reach. Built to withstand high winds, heavy smoke, and other extreme fire conditions, these technologies are designed for resilience when it matters most. By uniting detection and response into a single system, streamlining across firefighting networks, and reducing costs, teams are creating life-saving tools that can be deployed globally—not just in well-resourced regions. The result: a future where humanity coexists safely with natural fire—preserving its ecological role while preventing destructive wildfires that impact lives, ecosystems, and economies.
About the Prize
The $11M XPRIZE Wildfire is a four-year global competition designed to end destructive wildfires by catalyzing breakthrough technologies in ultra-early detection and rapid autonomous response. As climate-driven fire seasons intensify, every second counts. This prize challenges innovators to deliver faster, more precise, and more resilient solutions that can detect, manage, and suppress small fires before they escalate into devastating events.
The competition is structured around two synergistic tracks and one bonus prize:
Track A: Space-Based Wildfire Detection and Intelligence:
Teams must detect all fires across vast, state-to-country-scale landscapes in just one minute and, within 10 minutes, deliver precise, low-false-positive reports to decision-makers on the ground.
Track B: Autonomous Wildfire Response: Teams must autonomously detect and suppress a high-risk fire in a 1,000 km², environmentally challenging area, within 10 minutes, while leaving any decoy fires untouched.
Lockheed Martin Accurate Detection Intelligence Bonus Prize: Awarded to one or more teams in the Autonomous Wildfire Response track who demonstrate detection with exceptional speed, accuracy, and precision.
Teams may deploy satellites, drones, ground robots, or entirely new platforms. All technologies must be tested in representative outdoor high-risk wildfire areas, to ensure performance in real-world scenarios.
The $11M prize purse includes $7M in Grand Prizes, $3M in Milestone Awards, and a $1M Bonus Prize.
Prize Schedule
XPRIZE Wildfire launched in 2023 as a four-year global competition. Teams compete across two tracks: space-based detection and autonomous wildfire response, culminating in live testing in 2025 and 2026. Milestone prizes will be awarded at key moments throughout the competition, with final winners announced in 2026.
Tracks
The $11M XPRIZE Wildfire features two tracks tackling detection and suppression, and a bonus prize.
Track A: Space-Based Wildfire Detection and Intelligence tests teams’ ability to detect fires across vast, environmentally challenging landscapes in just one minute, and within ten minutes precisely characterize and report data to decision-makers on the ground. Solutions must rely on Earth Observation and may include innovations in sensors, AI, machine learning, and other technologies to expedite space-based detection of incipient wildfires.
Track B: Autonomous Wildfire Response tests teams’ use of autonomous systems to detect and fully suppress a high-risk fire in an environmentally challenging 1,000 km² test zone within ten minutes, leaving decoy fires untouched. Solutions may include sensors that can “hear, see, and smell” smoke, cameras, drones, AI, machine learning, and advance the integration of end-to-end systems that can detect and respond to wildfires autonomously.
Lockheed Martin Accurate Detection Intelligence Bonus Prize: Awarded to teams in the Autonomous Wildfire Response track whose technology achieves detection with exceptional speed, accuracy, and precision
The $11M prize purse supports innovation across both tracks. The first-place team in each track will receive $3.5M. A total of $3M in Milestone Prizes will be awarded incrementally:
Track A – Space-Based Detection & Intelligence: $750K shared among teams advancing to the Technical Verification Round, and up to $750K shared among teams advancing to the Final Round.
Track B – Autonomous Wildfire Response: $750K shared among teams advancing to Semifinals Testing, and up to $750K for select teams advancing to the Final Round.
In addition, a $1M Lockheed Martin Accurate Detection & Intelligence Bonus Prize will be awarded to one or more eligible teams in Track B.
Competition Materials
Welcome to the XPRIZE Wildfire resources page. XPRIZE Wildfire is an $11 million, 4-year competition incentivizing the innovation of firefighting technologies that will end destructive wildfire events so that humanity and beneficial wildfire can safely co-exist. The prize aims to transform current wildfire management approaches by developing new technologies that can rapidly and accurately detect, characterize, and respond to wildfires before they become destructive.
Globally, Extreme Wildfire Events (EWEs) are becoming more frequent. EWEs burn bigger, at a higher intensity, and can quickly sprawl out of control. While they represent only around 3% of all wildfires, EWEs account for 80% of total associated fire damage. Without solutions to detect and manage them at inception, they will continue to threaten fragile landscapes with deforestation and habitat degradation and lead to the loss of biodiversity, human infrastructure, and even human lives.
XPRIZE Wildfire will lead to new technologies and methods of Wildfire management with a holistic approach to prevent the loss of life, biodiversity, and other negative, lasting effects of destructive wildfires.
Learn more about the research behind the XPRIZE Wildfire competition and the need to end destructive wildfires in the State of Prize Report: The Grand Challenge And Rationale Behind XPRIZE Wildfire.
The Competition Guidelines (updated to Version 3.0 on 1st August 2025) summarize the high-level requirements and procedures of the competition. These guidelines are based upon extensive research and consultation with dozens of experts and hundreds in our online community, including fire incident chiefs, wildland smokejumpers, fire investigators, forest specialists, testing specialists, and researchers across a wide array of relevant fields.
The following Rules and Regulations are issued for the XPRIZE Wildfire Semifinals System Technical Verification (STV):
Track A: Space-Based Detection & Intelligence
Round 2: Semifinals System Technical Verification Rules and Regulations v1.0
Round 2: Semifinals System Technical Verification Rules and Regulations v1.1
Track B: Autonomous Wildfire Response
Round 2: Semifinals Rules and Regulations
Round 2: Semifinals Rules and Regulations v2.0
These documents supplement the Competition Guidelines. While the Guidelines remain in full effect as the primary document governing the competition, at each round of the competition, Rules and Regulations are published to provide necessary operational details specific to that round of the competition.
XPRIZE competitions are driven by teams of innovative groups and individuals, comprising subject matter experts, enthusiasts, start-ups, student teams, amateurs, and all problem-solvers in between. A winning idea can come from anyone, anywhere.
Note: The competition is void in those countries where prohibited or restricted by U.S. law. XPRIZE reserves the right to limit, or restrict upon notice, participation in the competition to any person or entity at any time for any reason. Teams may withdraw from the competition as set forth in the Competitor Agreement.
Teams will be responsible for the total costs of their participation in the competition, including R&D, general operations, and travel, among other costs. All teams are encouraged to seek sponsorships, partnerships, or investment funding.
XPRIZE Wildfire will entail multiple rounds of technical submissions, testing, and judging, which will be overseen by XPRIZE and an independent Judging Panel. These rounds will inform the Judges’ selection of teams that will advance through the competition.
Team submissions will include written materials, video footage (where applicable), other supplemental documentation, and technology prototypes that demonstrate teams’ solutions in accordance with the competition criteria. Team submissions will be assessed and scored in a way that upholds confidentiality as well as fair and equal consideration of all competition criteria, without favoring one criterion over another unless explicitly specified.
Teams should refer to the complete Competition Guidelines for more details about judging criteria, competition milestones, and official activities. Complete competition criteria and procedures will be released in the forthcoming Competition Rules & Regulations.
To ensure that the competition is fairly operated, XPRIZE will appoint the following two panels
ADVISORY BOARD
XPRIZE will recruit an Advisory Board composed of experts. XPRIZE will seek to ensure the expertise of the Advisory Board is diverse enough to understand and advise on a variety of relevant subject matter areas. This board will remain in place throughout the competition to advise XPRIZE regarding the competition.
JUDGING PANEL
XPRIZE will recruit a highly-qualified Judging Panel. XPRIZE will seek to ensure the expertise of the Judging Panel is diverse enough to fairly evaluate the various technologies and approaches that teams may develop during the competition. The Judging Panel will convene to collaborate, review guidelines and rules, ask questions, and ensure that they are fully able to judge the competition in a fair and appropriate manner.
COMPETITION INFORMATION WILL BE AVAILABLE IN THE FOLLOWING DOCUMENTS:
Competition Guidelines (PDF): A document summarizing the high-level requirements and procedures of the competition.
Competitor Agreement: A legally binding contract that contains the requirements of the competition. All competing teams must sign this in order to compete.
Esri Wildfire Aware Interactive Map
Tree Cover Loss Due to Fire Map from Global Forest Watch
Fire Information for Resource Management from NASA
Fire and Biodiversity in the Anthropocene from Science
Special Issue "Effects of Wildfire on Biodiversity" from the journal, Fire
Guidance on how to support wildlife during an extreme weather event from the Humane Society
Roadmap for Wildfire Resilience: Solutions for a Paradigm Shift from the Nature Conservancy and Aspen Institute
The State of Fire Tech from the Gordon and Betty Moore Foundation
Wildfire Adaptation Resource Hub from the Fire Adapted Communities Learning Network
Pet Preparedness Guide from the Humane Society
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