Wireless Innovation for a Networked Society Challenges

This contest is over.
Click here for current contests.
Wireless Innovation for a Networked Society Challenges Deadline: 2017-10-01
Award: $1,000,000

The National Science Foundation is sponsoring two challenges powered by Mozilla. Our goal: support big ideas that keep the web accessible, decentralized and resilient.

The Internet should be a public resource open and accessible to all. And, it is to many. But many people still lack reliable, affordable Internet access. And the underlying network itself is increasingly centralized, relying on infrastructure provided by a tiny handful of companies. We don’t have a failsafe if the infrastructure these companies offer is blocked or goes down.

These are significant issues. Mozilla and the National Science Foundation are committed to finding solutions by supporting bright people and big ideas across the U.S.

Today, Mozilla is announcing the National Science Foundation-sponsored Wireless Innovation for a Networked Society (WINS) Challenges: two U.S.-based competitions with $1 million in prize money each.

The goal: support creative, open-source ideas for making the Internet more accessible, decentralized and resilient. The challenges seek prototypes and designs that either a) provide connectivity during disasters or b) connect the unconnected.

Mozilla believes in the power of collaborative solutions to tackle big issues. Running open challenges has proven to be an effective instrument — not only to identify a broader set of solutions, but also to broaden the dialogue around these issues, to build new communities of problem-solvers and to strengthen the global network of people working toward a healthier Internet.

The program will begin accepting submissions in June 2017 through our soon-to-launch website, and will culminate in fall 2018.


Notify me of new challenges!

PLEASE ENTER YOUR EMAIL