Apply for the U7+ Student Challenge
Addressing the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals Through Technology and Pluridisciplinarity
Are you part of a student group or a course at Northwestern working to implement a social change project on campus or in a community? Would you like to collaborate with student peers from around the world and attend a two-day workshop on addressing the UN SDGs in Paris this summer?
The Northwestern Buffett Institute for Global Affairs invites teams of Northwestern students to apply for the U7+ Student Challenge: Addressing the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals Through Technology and Pluridisciplinarity.
One Northwestern team (up to four students) will be selected to participate in the challenge alongside peers from global universities. The goal is to address a real-world challenge using technology and student expertise from across disciplines. Ideal candidates are already engaging in work to address the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (UN SDGs) through a student group or coursework at Northwestern, and the student challenge programming would supplement the ongoing efforts.
The selected team from Northwestern will be part of two online events in winter/spring 2022 and have access to mentoring from global U7+ student leaders and Northwestern Buffett staff. Pending successful completion of the challenge and approval to travel (given travel restrictions that are subject to change during the pandemic), student teams will be granted funding to cover travel costs to attend a two-day workshop in Paris at École Polytechnique (up to $5,000 per student).
Timeline for Northwestern University students:
- Application deadline: 8:00 a.m. on January 31, 2022
- Anticipated date of notification: February 1, 2022
- Opening event (online): February 2022
- Project work: February-May 2022
- Final presentations (online): May 2022
- 2-day workshop in Paris (travel permitting, otherwise held online): Mid-late June 2022, after finals
Who is eligible?
- Teams of students working to address one or more of the UN SDGs through use of technology, broadly defined
- Funding will be available to one team with a maximum of four participants, and all participants must be Northwestern students
- Undergraduate, professional students, and graduate students are encouraged to apply
This challenge is hosted by the U7+ Alliance of World Universities, with leadership from École Polytechnique (France), and participation from Ashesi University (Ghana), Northwestern University (USA), Università degli Studi di Napoli Federico II (Italy), the University of Ottawa (Canada), and the U7+ Student Leaders Board.
For more information, students are invited to click here for the full description from École Polytechnique or to email Meghan Ozaroski at Northwestern Buffett.
Applications are due by 8:00 a.m. on January 31, 2022 and can be accessed here. Please submit one application per group.