Social Shifters Global Innovation Challenge
Supercharging young people with the ideas to change our world.
Grant funding awards + FREE support to move your idea forward + feature alongside some of the worlds biggest brands!
Take action on the issues that matter to you most.
Around the world, millions of young Social Shifters are taking on today’s most pressing social and environmental challenges.
If you’re a young person (18-30 years) with an idea, project or business solution to an issue that matters to you and your community, your journey starts here.
YOUR JOURNEY STARTS HERE!
WHY TAKE PART?
1) LEAD THE CHANGE
Learn from other young leaders and entrepreneurs. Emerge from our program with NEW ideas, confidence and connections.
2) MOVE FORWARD
We support you in developing your submission PLUS offer exclusive follow-on support opportunities to up to x100 eligible project teams.
3) GET FUNDED
Compete for multiple grant awards of up to $10,000 USD to fund work that improves lives, helps communities, and protects the planet!
The Sustainable
Development Goals
To enter the Social Shifters Global Innovation Challenge your idea must contribute to at least one of the United Nations’s Sustainable Development Goals.
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MEET OUR
PREVIOUS WINNERS.
“GROWING UP IN A COMMUNITY WITH NO ACCESS TO ELECTRICITY WAS A CHALLENGING EXPERIENCE FOR ME. THESE EXPERIENCES, COMBINED WITH MY PASSION FOR BUILDING TECH PROJECTS, LED ME TO BECOME A SOCIAL ENTREPRENEUR. THE KEY TRIGGER FOR ME WAS MY DESIRE TO ENSURE THAT NO OTHER CHILD HAD TO GO THROUGH WHAT I DID.”
Stanley Anignogu | 23 | Nigeria
LightEd is a social enterprise that repurposes electronic and plastic waste to build sustainable energy solutions - bringing power and light into refugee communities.
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“I WANT BIOMEC TO BECOME THE WORLD’S REFERENCE POINT FOR PRACTICAL,HIGH QUALITY AND ECOLOGICAL PROSTHETICS, ENABLING PEOPLE TO EXPERIENCELIFE WITHOUT LIMITATIONS.”
Marta Vânia Uetela , 27, Mozambique
Marta is a Co Founder of social enterprise ‘BIOMEC’ that collects abandoned fishing nets and plastic waste from the ocean and transforms these harmful plastics into affordable 3-D printed prosthetic limbs for people with disabilities.
“I DECIDED TO START CONEDUCACIÓN BECAUSE EDUCATION CHANGED MY LIFE. AS A FIRST-GENERATION STUDENT BORN IN A LOW-INCOME NEIGHBOURHOOD IN MEDELLÍN, IT WAS EDUCATION THAT OPENED THE DOORS TO A FUTURE I WOULD OTHERWISE HAVE NOT DREAMT OF.”
Yuliana Palacio, 24, Colombia
The ConEducación Foundation is a non-profit entity that aims to close gaps in academic performance and promote access to high-quality education for less advantaged students in Colombia. Anchored in the values of social responsibility , equity , community , support and empathy.
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“I BELIEVE BUILDING INFRASTRUCTURE THAT ENABLES PEOPLE TO GET ACCESS TO ECONOMIC OPPORTUNITIES THROUGH EITHER JOBS OR BUSINESSES IS THE SUREST WAY OF IGNITING SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT IN COMMUNITIES LIKE MINE.”
Charles Oyamo | 29 | Kenya
ReThread Africa is a project developed in Kenya that enables smallholder farmers to turn their agricultural waste into a new revenue stream that could subsidise smallholder agriculture and be the missing link to elevate farmers from the poverty bracket.
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“MY WORK IS IMPORTANT TO ME BECAUSE I KNOW IT CAN IMPROVE PEOPLE’S LIVES. IF I CAN INSPIRE CHILDREN AND ADULTS TO DISCOVER THE WONDERS OF NATURE, TO GO OUT MORE, TO LEARN TO COOK AND EAT HEALTHY OR TO DISCOVER A HOBBY THAT WILL GIVE THEM COMFORT ON A STRESSFUL DAY – THEN I WILL TRY TO DO THAT. IF I CAN GET JUST ONE CHILD TO MAKE A HAPPY MEMORY, IT’S ALL WORTH THE EFFORT.”
Elena Höge, 30, Germany
Yaldi Games enrich their players' lives by offering engaging gameplay that enhances their skills and wellbeing. Their debut title is called Out and About, a foraging life simulator that connects you to nature with real plants and recipes!
7 IN 10 BABIES DIE ARE PREMATURE BABIES DUE TO THE INSUFFICIENT FACILITIES ON GROUND [...] MOST MOTHERS THEN OPT FOR KANGAROO SKIN TO SKIN CARE BUT MOST OF THE MOTHERS USE UNSTERILE AND LIGHT CLOTHING TO DO THIS EVEN PREDISPOSING THESE BABIES TO MORE INFECTIONS LEADING TO DEATH. IT IS WITH THIS BACKGROUND THAT I AND MY COLLEAGUES DECIDED TO COME UP WITH A SIMPLER AND MORE AFFORDABLE SOLUTION.
Comfort Peace Ayikoru | 26 | Uganda
KangaCare is a low-cost, locally made, alternative to neonatal incubators used to support the life of premature babies. A knitted double-layered carrier that embraces the Kangaroo-inspired ‘skin-to-skin’ mother care technique and is fitted with vital reading sensors, and microprocessors for infant vital sign monitoring.
Your Challenge Journey
From 1st May
Register early for GIC24 to access our program EXTRAS!
MAY 27TH
Submissions Open
JUNE 4TH
Submission Support Programme Starts
WED JULY 31ST
Submissions Close (11pm UTC)
AUG 13TH
Exclusive Follow-on Project Support Starts (x100 spots available)
SEPT 16TH
Submission Scoring Begins
SEPT 29TH
Submission Scoring Ends
OCT 21ST
Finalists 1-2-1 Pitch Coaching Begins
NOVEMBER 18TH
FINALS! Pitching Begins
DECEMBER 8TH
Winning Projects Announced
IS SOCIAL SHIFTERS FOR ME?
Social Shifters Global Innovation Challenge is designed to support young people (18-30 years), from anywhere in the world, who want to take action on the social and environmental issues that impact them and their community.
Our programme and support is specially designed for young people with an idea or project at a very early stage in it’s development. However we welcome social entrepreneurs and businesses at a more advanced stage of their start up journey i.e. already delivering services, products or activity with social or environmental impact.
Thanks to our incredible sponsors, the Global Innovation Challenge program is 100% FREE to participants!
You and your project team will be supported during the submission process, access to live networking sessions, 1-2-1 coaching offered to all finalist projects PLUS (once you’ve applied) we open up more exclusive opportunities to move you and your idea forward.
The highest scoring projects will pitch for one of multiple grant funding awards of up to $10,000 US!
Our incredible
Partners
Social Shifters couldn’t exist without the support of our incredible partnership network. Massive thanks to all of the organizations that help us to accelerate the work of young changemakers.
ABOUT SOCIAL SHIFTERS
We exist to help the next generation of leaders, innovators and entrepreneurs to make a difference in the world.
We operate on a non-profit basis, providing engaging learning experiences, practical mentoring, and a global community of support to move you, and your ideas, forward.
We’re here to help you to get your idea, project or venture off the ground, and to connect you with Shifters in every corner of the planet!
