Wege Prize 2018

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Wege Prize 2018 Deadline: 2018-11-18
Award: $30,000 USD in total cash prizes
Open to: Higher Education Students Worldwide*

Participants will compete in transdisciplinary teams of five, representing different academic disciplines and different academic institutions. Both undergraduate and graduate level student are eligible to compete.

Each team must leverage its transdisciplinary makeup to collaboratively design and propose a product, service, business/non-profit organization, or other solution to a wicked problem that can help us transition from a linear economic model to a circular economic model.

Over the course of nine months and four distinct phases, Wege Prize 2018 teams will grow their ideas from an informal research plan into a fully-developed solution that can be prototyped and tested in the real world. Guided by direct feedback from competition judges, teams will work to rethink and redesign the way economies work by creating regenerative solutions that have widespread and lasting positive impact.

Wege Prize judges are looking for solutions that address the shortcomings of a linear economic model on a systemic level. The most successful solutions will:

• Think in systems by demonstrating an understanding of how parts influence one another within a whole, as well as the relationship of the whole to the parts.
• Consider the economics and viability of the solution within natural, social, and financial systems.
• Preserve and enhance natural capital by controlling finite resource stocks and balancing renewable resource flows.
• Optimize resource yields by circulating products, components, and materials at their highest utility at all times in both technical and biological cycles.
• Foster system effectiveness by designing out waste and negative externalities such as pollution, toxicity, and climate change.

Wege Prize Ignites Game-changing Sustainable Solutions; Awards over $30K USD in Prizes

* Details may apply. See contest website to confirm eligibility.


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