11 March 2024

The Geneva Challenge, hosted by the Geneva Graduate Institute, is a project funded by Swiss Ambassador Jenö Staehelin and aims to encourage graduate students to provide innovative and pragmatic solutions to some of the world’s complex challenges. This year, students are invited to develop analysis-based proposals on "The Challenges of Youth Empowerment".

Since an interdisciplinary solution, crossing traditional boundaries between academic disciplines, is key to addressing this issue, we invite master’s students from all academic programs and from anywhere in the world to provide helpful strategic recommendations. Five prizes, one per continent, will be distributed.

Application requirements

Teams of 3-5 master students must submit an 8,000 words proposal each, which:  

• identifies a challenge related to youth empowerment;
• constructs an interdisciplinary analysis on how it affects different aspects of development in a specific (but transposable) context;
• proposes innovation at the policy, practice, process, or technology levels turning the challenge into a development opportunity.

Registration closes at 23:59 CET on April 22, 2024.
Submissions are due at 23:59 CET on July 13, 2024.

Prizes

The Geneva Challenge 2024 will distribute 10,000 CHF in monetary prizes and the five finalist teams will be invited (travel and accommodation expenses covered) to publicly present their work in Geneva before a panel of high-level experts. Networking opportunities are also envisioned as part of the prize package.