Around the globe, college and university students with big ideas for making their communities and the world better are applying for Wege Prize, an international design competition with a prize pool of $65,000 USD. Winning submissions gain support and recognition for their innovations in sustainability and circularity that help solve some of today’s biggest problems — pollution, hunger, waste, and more.
The application period this year is open already and closes on October 8th. Have a new product idea? Or a research or business idea? Apply for 2024! Know students who would benefit from this opportunity? Share the news!
Five finalist teams for Wege Prize will make public presentations of their game-changing ideas next May. Between now and then, teams will receive valuable feedback from Wege Prize’s expert judges, so that the multidisciplinary competitors can refine and advance their ideas into real-world solutions.
This year, Wege Prize recognized five winners with incredibly innovative ideas: a concept to turn banana crop waste into faux leather, a system for community composting, a technique for making valuable resources from wastewater, and a biodegradable substitute for plastic packaging, among others.
About Wege Prize
Based out of Kendall College of Art and Design of Ferris State University (KCAD), Wege Prize is a collaborative design challenge focused on catalyzing real-world solutions for the circular economy, with winning student teams receiving cash awards, thanks to the continuing support of The Wege Foundation.
Since 2013, KCAD has inspired college and university students from around the world to envision a more sustainable future that embraces the circular economy through Wege Prize. Competing teams start with a diverse, transdisciplinary team of five, identify a “wicked problem” to address, and develop a compelling solution — product, service, or business model — that builds on three core principles of the circular economy:
Eliminate waste and pollution.
Keep products and materials in use.
Regenerate our natural systems.
Over approximately nine months, with extensive feedback from expert judges, the student teams nurture their ideas and prepare to share their plans with the world. The ideas that the judges deem best positioned for real-world success advance through four phases, receiving valuable feedback along the way. The top teams present their solutions to a global audience at the 2024 Wege Prize Awards event in the late spring and receive cash awards.
Collaborating, designing, planning, and testing, the teams yield winning solutions that gain wide attention and even acclaim, seen in news media and recognized by their own institutions.
Find Out More
Is your idea ready to win? Join the movement! Last year, Wege Prize drew hundreds of student competitors representing a vast field of academic disciplines from over 30 countries in Asia, Africa, Europe, and the Americas. This year it could be your turn. Build your team and apply at wegeprize.org/apply. Sign up for our newsletter to stay informed at wegeprize.org/connect and visit our YouTube channel to watch past years’ presentations, an informational webinar, and more!
For press inquiries, more information, and for interviews of Wege Prize’s past winners and 2024 organizers, contact Martha Stackhouse at wicked@wegeprize.org.
Follow Wege Prize on KCAD’s Wege Center for Sustainable Design page on LinkedIn, Facebook (@wegeprize), Twitter (@wegeprize), Instagram (@wegeprize), for more content, updates on participants, and more.