Advancing Development Goals Contest for Masters Students and a Chance to Win CHF 10,000 from the Geneva Graduate Institute

The Graduate Institute of International and Development Studies in Geneva invites graduate students from all over the world to participate in the Advancing Development Goals Contest. The Contest aims to present innovative and pragmatic solutions to address the challenges of crisis management.

The contest welcomes contributions by groups of 3 to 5 master students involving at least two different disciplinary backgrounds or an interdisciplinary perspective. Contributions must be both theoretically grounded and offer pragmatic solutions to an important relevant social, political, or economic problem stemming from The Challenges of Crisis Management. Innovation can relate to practices, processor technology.

The five finalist teams will be invited to come to Geneva for their project showcases and the award ceremony at the end of September - beginning of October 2021. Five prizes will be distributed; one in each of the following categories: 

• Universities located in Africa.
• Universities located in Asia.
• Universities located in Europe.
• Universities located in North America and Oceania.
• Universities located in South America.

Eligibility Criteria:

• Participants of the ADG contest 2021 must be enrolled as graduate students at the time of their registration for the contest. Graduate Institute Geneva considers “graduate students” to be anyone enrolled in a post-bachelor level university program with a maximum duration of 2 (two) years, or anyone who can prove to be studying towards acquiring a master's level degree.
• Participants must gather in teams of 3 (three) to 5 (five) graduate students. In the submitted analysis, they should contribute with an interdisciplinary approach or from at least 2 (two) different disciplinary perspectives.
• No participation on an individual basis will be admitted.
• The participants can be enrolled in the same graduate program or can collaborate with students from other programs from the university they are enrolled in or coordinate with students from different universities and institutions worldwide.
• The category in which the team will be placed for the contest will be based on the continent of the universities predominantly represented within the team. In case, there is an equal representation of continents within the team, the team decides in which category they wish to compete.
• All team members must provide a scanned copy of a document that serves as proof of enrolment as a graduate student before the registration of the team can be confirmed and validated.
• Any official document issued by the academic institution the student is affiliated to is accepted as proof of enrolment as long as it contains:

• The name of the student;
• The program he/she is enrolled in;
• An issuance date up to three months before the registration date or
• Validity beyond the registration date.

• Exceptionally, it might accept the registration of students who are transitioning into graduate studies, as long as they have already been accepted in a graduate student program at the time of the registration.
• Each group must choose a team leader who will be the main (but not sole) focus point for communication with the organization of the contest.

Evaluation Criteria:

• The ASC and the Jury Panel will be looking for the following characters in the proposals:
• The relevance of the research question proposed by the team. It refers to submissions necessarily being able to identify a real-world problem, not just an interesting research question, thus transposing the disconnect between academic and policy challenges.
• The entry must display analytical rigor and academic competence in the choice of sources, the structure of the arguments, and the ability to discuss, question, and build upon previous perspectives on the topic (critical approach).
• The practicality of solutions and feasibility embedded within the proposals. There should be development on why and how the idea presented is efficient in addressing the issue raised by the team.
• All submissions must be original and specially developed for participation in the 2021 ADG contest. The originality here implies that significant sections of other works should not be reused in the submission to the Geneva Challenge. Entries that have already participated in other contests will not be accepted. However, ideas may be transposed from a different context and adapted to the specific problem the students decide to focus on.
• The outreach of the solution, that is, the amount of people that will directly or indirectly benefit from the project is not an evaluation criterion as long as the solution is potentially transposable (scalable) to similar situations.
• Regarding the finalist presentations in Geneva, the Jury will be looking into inter alia:

• The clarity of the oral presentations;
• The perspective of a practical linkage with the beneficiaries of the action proposed;
• The quality of the response to questions from the Jury and from the public.

• The oral presentation should ensure that the students do their work themselves but will not be crucial in defining ranking the finalists.
• The finalists will not attend each other’s presentations, so as to allow similar questions to be asked to each team and to avoid questioning the decision on the final ranking.

Prizes:

• All shortlisted submissions selected by the ASC are published and promoted (if authorized by the teams) on the Geneva Challenge website, providing visibility to the teams and their work.
• All members of the 5 finalist teams will be invited to come to Geneva (if complying with COVID-19 restrictions) for an oral presentation where they will defend their proposals and answer questions from the Jury and from the public.
• At least 2 members from each finalist team should confirm availability to come to Geneva for the oral presentation of their submission. If only one member is available or in case there is a lack of reaction to the invitation to come to Geneva after 7 days of the communication of the results will be considered as withdrawal from the competition.
• The finalists will also be present at the awards ceremony where the results of the contest will be announced preceded by a high-level keynote speech on The Challenges of Crisis Management.
• Travel expenses such as flights, visa requests, and accommodation are covered by the organization of the contest for this purpose.
• The presentations and submissions of the finalists will be promoted for information in relevant publications and international organization fora, creating professional networking opportunities.
• The projects of the finalist teams will be showcased on the Youth Solutions platform, the UN Sustainable Development Solutions Network (SDSN) Youth.
• The winning project will receive a cash prize of CHF 10’000 (ten thousand Swiss Francs). The two teams in second place will receive CHF 5’000 each. The two teams in third place, CHF 2’500 each.
• The Jury Panel can decide not to distribute one of the prizes if there is no project meeting the conditions or criteria listed.

Timeline:

• Semi-finalists announced: Beginning of August 2021
• Jury Evaluation meeting: Mid-August 2021
• Finalists announced: September 2021
• Oral Presentations of the Finalists and Award Ceremony: October 2021

About the Graduate Institute Geneva:

The Graduate Institute of International and Development Studies is an institution of research and higher education dedicated to the study of world affairs, with a particular emphasis on the cross-cutting fields of international relations and development issues. Through our core activities, we aim to promote international cooperation and make a contribution to the progress of developing societies. More broadly, we endeavor to develop creative thinking on the major challenges of our time, foster global responsibility, and advance respect for diversity.

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