BMO Generation Regen Challenge 2026: Winners and Finalists | One Young World

BMO Generation Regen Challenge 2026: Winners and Finalists

The BMO Generation Regen Challenge 2026 is a completed funding cycle, not an open application. One Young World has published the results of the competitive process: two organizations were named Challenge Winners and four more were named Challenge Finalists. The winners receive $60,000 grants, the finalists receive $20,000 grants, and all six organizations receive full scholarships to attend the One Young World Summit 2026 in Cape Town, South Africa.

That change in status matters if you found this page through a grant search. The application window has closed, and this page should be used to understand the 2026 award, the funded organizations, and the program’s selection criteria. There is no new deadline or replacement application route announced on the official challenge page. The old application form is therefore not a current call to action.

At a Glance

The official page gives the 2026 deadline as 24 February 2026. It separately says that the applying organization had to have been registered for at least one year by 23 February 2026. Those are different requirements, so they should not be collapsed into a single date when describing the completed call.

The Two Challenge Winners

Larry Davis — Green Mechanics Benefit LLC

Larry Davis is the lead at Green Mechanics Benefit LLC, a Maryland-based environmental infrastructure company. The organization’s work centers on regenerative water and nutrient recovery systems. One Young World describes its use of nature-based technologies, including Algal Turf Scrubber systems, to convert excess nutrients from stormwater and agricultural runoff into regenerative biomass and soil-building inputs.

This winner profile shows how broadly the challenge interpreted regenerative agriculture. The work is not limited to a conventional farm intervention or a particular crop. It connects water management, nutrient recovery, runoff reduction, and soil inputs. The important through-line is that the approach addresses ecological function while supporting agricultural systems. The $60,000 award is intended to accelerate that work rather than act as a general prize for an individual leader.

Emily Harris — Sandown Centre for Regenerative Agriculture

Emily Harris is the executive director of the Sandown Centre for Regenerative Agriculture. The centre works in the context of agricultural soil degradation, an aging farming sector, and limited access to land. Its focus is regenerative farming education for new and young farmers and ecosystem restoration on Vancouver Island, with the stated goals of improving soil health and increasing biodiversity.

The second winner profile brings education, access to land, farmer succession, and restoration into the same award. That combination is useful for understanding the program’s priorities: a project can qualify through the systems around farming as well as through a single technical practice. The official result recognizes a model designed to help people enter regenerative agriculture while improving the ecological condition of the places where farming takes place.

The Four Challenge Finalists

The official page identifies four finalists, each receiving a $20,000 grant to support the continued growth and impact of the project.

Ranah Chavoshi — PhyCo Technologies Inc.

Ranah Chavoshi is the co-founder and CEO of PhyCo Technologies Inc. The company develops home-compostable biomaterials from invasive or cultivated seaweed. Its flagship material is intended to replace petroleum-based agricultural plastics with mulch films and crop-support materials that can biodegrade in soil without leaving microplastic residue. The project links materials innovation to farm waste, soil conditions, and the practical problem of agricultural plastic use.

Marika Dewar-Norosky — Manitoba Organics

Marika Dewar-Norosky is the executive director of Manitoba Organics. The organization works to grow a resilient, economically and ecologically sustainable organic sector that benefits farmers, consumers, and the environment. Its work strengthens the wider ecosystem around organic agriculture so that farmers can remain economically viable while advancing soil health, biodiversity, and climate resilience.

Emma Ekua-Bedua Hudson — Food for Thought Foundation

Emma Ekua-Bedua Hudson is the co-founder and president of Food for Thought Foundation. The organization addresses food deserts in Washington, DC, where fresh and affordable produce can be difficult to access. It has built a modular vertical farm and a curriculum for community centers and schools. One Young World says the Farms for Thought program deploys those farms and learning materials to create a more distributed produce network.

Diana Virgovicova — Xatoms

Diana Virgovicova is the CEO of Xatoms. Xatoms uses a discovery engine combining quantum chemistry and machine learning to identify photocatalysts for water purification. The company focuses on removing contaminants such as bacteria, viruses, and pesticides with light, including sunlight, rather than harsh chemicals. Its pilots with agricultural producers and vertical farms explore how treated water can be reused safely.

Together, these finalists cover agricultural materials, organic farming systems, community food access, and water treatment. They are not four versions of the same project. Their common feature is a practical connection between innovation and the health, resilience, or accessibility of food and farming systems.

What the 2026 Award Provides

The cash structure is specific. There are two $60,000 winner grants and four $20,000 finalist grants, for a total of $200,000. The official page presents the grants as support for the organizations’ projects. This is organization-level funding, not a personal stipend for a leader to use independently.

The non-cash component is also substantial. Winners and finalists receive full scholarships to participate in the One Young World Summit 2026 in Cape Town, South Africa. The published scholarship support includes return flights and accommodation. The official page also grants winners and finalists lifelong membership in the One Young World Ambassador Community, described as a global network with more than 20,000 members in more than 190 countries.

The Summit scholarship changes the value of the award for organizations whose work depends on relationships. A funded leader can bring a project that is already grounded in a local issue into a setting with peers, potential collaborators, and other decision-makers. That does not guarantee follow-on funding or a partnership, but it gives the selected organizations a structured opportunity to explain their work beyond their immediate operating area.

Who Was Eligible for This Cycle

The 2026 call was aimed at young leaders between 18 and 35 who were leading a non-profit, charity, or social enterprise. The official page says that the organization had to be either a registered Canadian non-profit or charity, a U.S. 501(c)(3), or a social enterprise registered in Canada or the United States. A social enterprise had to propose a project with a social purpose and confirm that 100% of the grant funds would be used for that project.

The project or program had to be delivered by the applying organization and based in and focused on Canada and/or the United States. The program areas included local farming, soil health, animal welfare, biodiversity, water stewardship, crop rotation and diversity, Indigenous and cultural practices, and food security systems. A proposal could be new or could develop an existing project, but it needed to show a credible connection to regenerative or sustainable agriculture.

There were also clear submission rules. The organization leader had to submit the application through the organization, applications could be written in English or French, and only one application per organization could be considered. Projects delivered outside Canada or the United States, funding for an individual working outside an eligible organization, partisan or politically affiliated programs, and discriminatory programs were listed as ineligible.

One Young World allowed some flexibility around age for people older than 35 when they could demonstrate appropriate personal impact, initiative, and willingness to engage. It could not consider anyone who would be under 18 by the time of the One Young World Summit 2026 in Cape Town. That age note was part of the official rules; it was not a general waiver of the organization, geography, or project requirements.

How the Original Application Worked

The application process is now historical. Applicants first had to confirm that their organization, project geography, leader status, and age fit the published rules. They then submitted the application in English or French through the official submission channel, with the organization’s leader acting as the applicant. The deadline was 24 February 2026, and late applications were not considered.

The official page emphasizes the substance that the application had to demonstrate rather than publishing a permanent checklist of file names or page limits. A credible submission needed to describe a robust regenerative or sustainable agriculture project, explain the likely positive impact, and show whether the work was in a stage such as developing and testing, making the case, delivering and implementing, growing and scaling, or changing systems. Applicants also had to show that they could deliver the project within the proposed timeframe, manage the funds, complete reporting and analysis, and protect safety and equity.

That evaluation framework is more useful than a generic grant-writing checklist. A strong proposal would have connected a specific intervention to one or more stated challenge areas, explained what would change, and shown why the organization was positioned to deliver it. It also needed to treat fair labor, inclusive decision-making, and the safety and dignity of participants as part of project quality. The official criteria specifically call attention to marginalized and underserved communities, so a proposal that named beneficiaries without explaining their role in decisions would have been incomplete.

Because the cycle is complete, there is no reason to assemble a new application package from this page. If One Young World announces another Generation Regen Challenge, applicants should wait for that cycle’s own rules, dates, and submission instructions. The 2026 eligibility criteria and results are useful context, but they should not be assumed to govern a future call.

What the Results Say About Fit

The six selected organizations illustrate a wide range of possible approaches while staying close to the official subject areas. Green Mechanics Benefit connects runoff and nutrient recovery to regenerative biomass. Sandown Centre links farmer education and land access with restoration. PhyCo Technologies addresses farm plastics through compostable materials. Manitoba Organics works on the economic and ecological conditions that let organic farmers thrive. Food for Thought responds to unequal access to fresh produce through modular farms and education. Xatoms works on water purification and reuse for agricultural settings.

This range suggests that the challenge was looking for applied work with a clear pathway to environmental or social benefit, not a narrow definition of one approved farming method. It also shows why the official evaluation language includes both sustainability and regeneration. Projects could be assessed through soil, water, biodiversity, animal welfare, food access, cultural practice, or local farming, provided the proposal explained the connection and the organization’s ability to act.

Current Status

The BMO Generation Regen Challenge 2026 should be marked completed. The official One Young World page has published the two winners and four finalists, including their organizations and project descriptions. It does not publish a later application deadline on that page. There is no current application action to take here, and the former application portal should not be used as though it were accepting submissions.

For the authoritative record of the award and any future announcement, use the official challenge page linked in the metadata above. Check that page for a new cycle before relying on the 2026 eligibility rules, funding amounts, or dates.