Wege Prize 2019 About Economic Solutions & Projects for Undergraduate and Graduate Students with 30,000 USD Total Cash Prizes

Wege Prize, organized by Kendall College of Art and Design’s Wege Center for Sustainable Design with support from the Wege Foundation, is an annual competition that ignites game-changing solutions for the future by inspiring college/university students around the world to collaborate across institutional, disciplinary, and cultural boundaries to redesign the way economies work. 

Wege Prize teams must leverage their transdisciplinary makeup to collaboratively design and propose a solution to a wicked problem of their choosing that can, in turn, help solve the wicked problem of transitioning from a linear economic model to a circular economic model. Possible solutions include, but are not limited to:

• Products 
• Services 
• Businesses or non-profit organizations

Prize

Winning teams will split the following awards evenly between their five members:

1. First Place: $15,000 (USD)
2. Second Place: $10,000 (USD)
3. Third Place: $5,000 (USD)

Eligibility

Individual Participation Requirements

To be eligible to participate on a Wege Prize 2019 team, you must:

• Attend a college, university, or equivalent institution of higher education anywhere in the world

• Be a student enrolled in a full-time (or equivalent) undergraduate or graduate program for the duration of the competition*

*Both undergraduate and graduate level students are eligible to compete. Teams can be composed of both undergraduate and graduate students if they so choose. 

Team Participation Requirements

To be eligible to participate in Wege Prize 2019, teams must:

• Have exactly five members

• Represent at least three (3) different academic disciplines*

• Represent at least two (2) different institutions of higher education, such as colleges, universities, or separate colleges/schools within a larger university. (For instance, a team member from Example University's School of Engineering and a team member from Example University's School of Earth Sciences would be considered as representing two different institutions.)*

*These are the minimum requirements. Teams with the greatest disciplinary and institutional diversity will likely have a higher probability of success.

Judging

Wege Prize judges are looking for solutions that address the shortcomings of a linear economic model on a systemic level. The most successful solutions will: 

1. Think in systems by demonstrating an understanding of how parts influence one another within a whole, as well as the relationship of the whole to the parts. 
2. Consider the economics and viability of the solution within natural, social, and financial systems.
3. Preserve and enhance natural capital by controlling finite resource stocks and balancing renewable resource flows.
4. Optimize resource yields by circulating products, components, and materials at their highest utility at all times in both technical and biological cycles. 
5. Foster system effectiveness by designing out waste and negative externalities such as pollution, toxicity, and climate change.