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What’s your moonshot innovation to a global grand challenge that leverages exponential technology and has a potential to impact a billion people in 10 years?
Overview
The purpose of the SingularityU UGA Global Impact Challenge is to foster moonshot innovations and startups that positively impact the lives of people living in the United States, with an ability to scale and impact a billion people worldwide in 10 years.
What moonshot innovation would you develop to solve a global grand challenge (environment, energy, water, food, health, disaster resilience, governance, learning, space, security, prosperity, and shelter) using exponential technology that would impact the lives of a billion people in the next 10 years?
The Prize
The winner receives a seat at the SU Global Summit in San Francisco, CA on August 20-22, 2018.
Dates and timeline
Applications open: May 15, 2018
Bootcamp: June 4-6, 2018
Winners announced: June 6, 2018
Sponsored by:
Rules & Criteria
Applicants must meet the following eligibility requirements:
- You must be a citizen of the United States
- You must be at least 21 years of age at the time of application
- You must be fluent in written and spoken English
- You must be able to attend the SU Global Summit (August 20-22, 2018)
We look for people from all professional backgrounds, but will be really thrilled to find you if:
- You’re a founder of an idea-stage startup or an individual with a moonshot idea
- You’re an accomplished entrepreneur, technologist, scientist, or change agent with expertise in your chosen field(s)
- You’re already considering how to leverage exponential technologies to create positive impact in the world
- You’re committed to the long-term journey of launching an impact-focused startup
- Degree of solution’s relevance to the theme of the challenge
- The regional relevance in solving the challenge in the United States
- Feasibility, Viability and Coherence of implementing the idea
- Entrepreneurial and innovative potential, with a focus on technological novelty
- Applicant’s leadership experience and quality, profile, achievements, and potential
- CV/Resume
- Summary of accomplishments
- An abstract of the project idea
- Within the abstract, describe and detail the following: your idea and problem/opportunity you are addressing, your solution and long-term impact, applied technology for your solution, and your business model
- A video URL of the project idea
- Applications open: May 15, 2018
- Bootcamp: June 4-6, 2018
- Pitch event & Winners announced: June 6, 2018
Frequently Asked Questions
Global Impact Challenges (GICs) are annual incentive competitions held in partnership with sponsor organizations worldwide and organized by geography and theme. These challenges act as a platform to identify outstanding entrepreneurs, leaders, scientists, and engineers with the most innovative ideas for moonshot innovations and startups that can positively impact a billion people in 10 years. The winner of each challenge receives a full sponsorship to attend an SU program.
We are looking for early-phase startup ideas or individuals with a moonshot ideas. Judging criteria is based on the grandness of the idea—such as whether it solves a problem with a potential to positively impact millions of people, technological novelty, viability of implementing it and applicants leadership potential.
If you’re a later-stage venture, check out the SU Ventures program.
Intellectual property resulting from a GIC belongs to the applicant(s).
The selection process has 2-3 phases, depending on the GIC. The first phase involves a review of all applications to determine finalists, and the second phase involves final judging to select the winner at a pitch event.
The winner will cover the air travel expenses to and from the SU Global Summit.
In all cases where a GIC winner cannot attend the SU program, the winner forfeits his or her seat to the first runner-up and would then need to reapply for admission in a future year.