The Geneva Challenge 2016 – The Challenges of Urbanisation

The Contest

Eager to stimulate reflection and innovation on development from diverse disciplinary and contextual perspectives and with the generous support of Ambassador Jenö Staehelin, the Graduate Institute is launching the third edition of the Advancing Development Goals Contest, an international competition for graduate students.

The Challenge

In 2016, the contest is to discuss The Challenges of Urbanisation.

The idea is to gather contributions that are both theoretically grounded and offer pragmatic solutions to a relevant international development problem stemming from an interdisciplinary collaboration between 3 to 5 enrolled master students from anywhere in the world.

We invite teams of students to:

• identify a challenge stemming from urbanisation;
• construct an interdisciplinary analysis on how it affects different aspects of development in a specific (but transposable) context;
• propose innovation at the policy, practice, process or technology levels turning the challenge into development opportunity.

Application Process

In order to apply to The Geneva Challenge 2016:

• Read carefully the Rules and Regulations.
• Read the Call for Contributions to get a better understanding of this year’s topic “The Challenges of Urbanisation” .
• Send in your application by filling in the following form.
• Registration deadline: 25th May 2016
• Submissions are due by the 31st July 2016

Selection Process

Your submissions will be evaluated by an interdisciplinary academic steering committee who will select semi-finalists to be published on the competitions website and then reviewed by an independent jury of experts with academic, governmental and private sector backgrounds.

Three finalist teams will be invited (traveling and accommodation expenses covered) to an oral presentation in Geneva, where they will defend their ideas and answer questions from the jury and from the public. The finalists will also be present at an awards ceremony where the results of the contest will be announced preceded by a high-level key-note speech on the challenges of urbanisation.

Prizes

The ADG contest 2016 will distribute 17,500 CHF in monetary prizes. The winning project will be awarded 10,000 CHF, the second prize will receive 5,000 CHF and the third, 2,500 CHF.

Read more and apply here.