MIT Solve 2021 Global Challenges // Apply by June 16th 2021

Apply for MIT Solve before June 16th 2021 & join a supportive community of peers, funders, and experts to help advance your work.

Creative & innovative people from all over the world have come up with ways of using technology to create solutions to various problems that humanity has struggled with over the years.

Digital technology, in particular, has unlocked various pathways for people to innovate, grow, scale up their businesses, create jobs and simplify access to services to marginalized communities which was an uphill task only a decade ago.

MIT Solve 2021 version is up and ready for submissions from brilliant minds all over the world who are looking to find solutions to some of the challenges that the globe is facing. This year, over $2 million in funding is available for MIT Solve 2021 Global Challenges.

Apply today!

The Global Challenges available for participation in 2021 include:

Digital Inclusion

The prevailing pandemic has amplified the need to be connected in order to access jobs, training and markets. However, we have more than half of Africa and the rest of the world still offline, and 37% of rural US households with no access to broadband. Bringing the rest of the world up to speed with the digital evolution could add $6.7 trillion to the economy and lift 500 million people out of poverty.

One of the ways of ensuring that everyone gets to live a dignified and productive life is building an inclusive digital economy so as to ensure that everyone gets access to digital services. The MIT Solve is looking for technology-based solutions that ensure that everyone has access to the digital economy.

Equitable Classrooms

In the wake of the new normal, some schools have shifted to distance learning, while others have shut down completely. The disruptions worsen pre-existing education inequalities along wealth, gender, ethnicity, linguistic and geographical lines. Students have shown resilience in the face of these challenges, yet if not addressed, unfinished learning could represent a $10 trillion loss in lifetime earnings.

Even before the pandemic, the challenges that young learners faced needed to be solved in order to support young learners to develop the skills and competencies they need to thrive in the 21st century. The MIT Solve community is looking for technology-based solutions that ensure all primary and secondary school learners have access to quality, safe, and equitable learning environments.

21 Places of The Future // Nairobi’s Potential for Growth

Resilient Ecosystems

The earth is ours to take care of and nurture. All the activities that human beings take part in play an active role in either building or destroying any ecosystems. Yet, humans have degraded over 75 per cent of the Earth’s land area, and 35 per cent of fish stocks are over-harvested.

With restoration and better management, ecosystems can thrive and provide greater benefits, including up to one-third of the carbon mitigation necessary for a 2-degree global warming target. Technology and innovation can help improve efficiency, replicate good models, and ensure communities gain durable sources of funding, land rights, and data sovereignty.

The MIT Solve community is looking for technology-based solutions that help communities restore, sustain, and benefit from resilient ecosystems.

Health Security & Pandemics Challenge

The COVID-19 pandemic caught the world by surprise with most countries not well-prepared to deal with a pandemic of that magnitude.  The crisis also highlights huge health inequities and has laid bare the urgent need to reduce the risk of future health security threats and address the weaknesses in our health systems.

Many relevant solutions will rely on researchers or policymakers, there is also a clear role for tech innovators to support health security for all. The MIT Solve community is looking for technology-based solutions that protect all people—especially those most underserved and at-risk because of their race, ethnicity, age, gender, or income—from the impacts of disease outbreaks.

Anti-racist Technology in The US

Black, Indigenous, and People of Color (BIPOC) in the US have created resilient, culturally rich, and generous communities despite centuries of institutionalized racism, anti-Blackness, settler colonialism, and oppression. The COVID-19 pandemic has inflamed the disparities between BIPOC and white communities in the US, including in wealth, education, incarceration and health.

These disparities are primarily a result of the system working as initially intended, whether through current policies, biased enforcement of rules, or a lasting legacy of past programs such as redlining or the allotment of Native lands.

Further, a new wave of technologies has added or perpetuated racial bias, expanded predatory surveillance systems, and driven hidden decision-making under the guise of neutral algorithms. The MIT Solve community is searching for technology-based solutions by and for communities of colour that help create antiracist and equitable futures in the US.

Are you convinced that you have what it takes to create a solution for the 2021 Global Challenges? Apply here by June 16, 2021. Selected Solver teams will join MIT Solve’s supportive community of peers, funders, and experts to help advance their work.

About Solve

Solve was born out of the Office of the President of MIT in 2015, a natural offshoot of MIT’s mission to advance knowledge in science, technology, and other areas of scholarship that will best serve the nation and the world in the 21st century.

Thanks to its partners, Solve has brokered commitments of over $40 million in funding and resource commitments for Solver teams and social entrepreneurs.

Solve is an initiative of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) with a mission to solve world challenges. Solve is a marketplace for social impact innovation. Through open innovation Challenges, Solve finds incredible tech-based social entrepreneurs all around the world. Solve then brings together MIT’s innovation ecosystem and a community of Members to fund and support these entrepreneurs to help them drive lasting transformational impact.

Join Solve on this journey.