The global sustainability crisis requires innovative solutions that promote human flourishing without compromising the natural systems upon which we depend. For this competition, undergraduate students will rise to this challenge by developing an innovative plan or solution that promotes one or more of the United Nations’ Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) while taking account of other relevant SDGs. In doing so, you will address a particular sustainability problem or challenge which could be at a local, regional, national, or international level anywhere in the world.
Your solution could be a program for a government or private entity, proposal, product or service, system, business plan, event, social media platform, app, game, law, organization, educational initiative, or something else. Your solution must be presented in the form of a fact sheet.
If possible, your solution should reflect on the imbalance between the social and environmental Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). Of the 17 SDGs, only two—SDG 14 (Life Below Water) and SDG 15 (Life on Land)—explicitly address nonhuman concerns. Even then, these goals often emphasize the value of nature primarily in terms of human use and resource extraction. If your idea or solution contributes to addressing this imbalance, you may be considered for a bonus award.
We welcome submissions from individuals and teams of undergraduate students from all participating universities and colleges, which are:
International Humanitarian University (Ukraine)
National Autonomous University of Mexico (Mexico)
University of Birmingham (United Kingdom)
University of Illinois (Chicago, USA)
University of Illinois (Springfield, USA)
University of Illinois (Urbana-Champaign, USA)
University of Pretoria (South Africa)
Universidad del Quindío (Columbia)
University of Turin (Italy)
Vienna University of Economics and Business (Austria)
Waubonsee Community College (USA)
Zhejiang University (China)
Undergraduate students from other universities or colleges may serve as members of teams that enter the competition provided the lead student is enrolled at a participating college or university. (For more details see “Competition Rules: Eligibility”).
What are SDGs?
We understand that learning about all 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) from scratch can feel overwhelming — but it doesn’t have to be!
To help you get started, we developed interactive resources that introduce what each SDG means and why it matters for people and the planet:
If you’re interested in many of the UN SDGs, try our What's Your SDG quiz to discover which ones best match your passions and values.
Of the 17 SDGs, 15 focus primarily on human concerns, while only two directly address nature—and even these are often framed around human use of natural “resources.”
Are you ready to make a difference? Can you think of ways to help correct this imbalance between social and environmental SDGs? Read on to learn how to enter the competition!
How to Enter
Team Member:
Sign up on HeroX and follow the challenge.
Each team member must read and accept the legal agreement (when signing up for the challenge).
Team Captain (if you are participating on your own, you are the Team Captain):
Sign up on HeroX and follow the challenge.
Click on "Begin entry" and fill out the registration form for your team.
Register your team (even if it is a team of one!). To do that, create a Team on the webpage, add other members, and assign the captain. THIS IS NOT THE FACT SHEET SUBMISSION FORM.
When you are ready to submit the fact sheet, go to "My entries" and find Submission Form there.
Upload the PDF of you fact sheet and fill in all the required information.
Prizes
Robert McKim Award (1 winner): $2000
Second prize (2 winners): $1000
Third prize (3 winners): $500
Professor Mike Yao (UIUC College of Media and the UIUC Gies College of Business) will guide the top three winning teams (irrespective of their institution or country) in identifying viable pathways for further idea development and assist them in securing appropriate resources for their specific projects.
The following awards are also available in 2025, for submissions that meet the required criteria:
$500 Sustainable Health Solution Award (focus on SDG 3). Award to an innovation in promoting human health or sustainable healthcare services. Examples of challenges to address: promoting healthy behaviors (such as to prevent chronic noncommunicable diseases); reducing energy and wastes in healthcare operations; improving equitable access to healthcare services; decreasing health threats from environmental and social conditions; increasing the resilience of healthcare services; or communicating to the public and healthcare professionals the adverse health impacts of climate change and pollution. Award sponsored by Dr. Holly Rosencranz.
$500 Sustainable Education Solution Award (focus on SDG 4). Award to an innovation in education technologies or content for classroom or lifelong learning. Examples of challenges to address: reducing energy and wastes in school buildings; creating learning standards, lessons or exercises on sustainability challenges like equity, climate change, and food insecurity; partnering with community businesses or organizations to develop innovative internships in sustainability; designing teacher training on sustainability challenges; using schools to help communities assess their challenges and improve well-being; expanding sustainability courses or programs in higher education institutions. Sponsor: Anonymous.
$500 Sustainable Transportation Solution Award (focus on SDG 11). Award to an innovation in transportation technologies or systems. Examples of challenges to address: promoting equitable access to reliable transportation solutions, including for rural or under-resourced communities; planning transport systems that are resilient to climate change impacts; encouraging low-emissions passenger and freight transportation, including fuel and tire wear; increasing transportation safety. Sponsor: Anonymous.
$500 for the team with the most multidisciplinary idea, recognizing that sustainability challenges are complex and interconnected. This award honors submissions that effectively integrate knowledge across fields, including those addressing the imbalance between social and environmental SDGs.
NEW award for the 2025 Competition:
$500 Multimedia Award. Award to an original multimedia video that best presents a team’s sustainability challenge and solution. For example, create a high-impact video using your voices together with photos, animations, graphics, instrumental music, songs, other sounds, dance, etc. The video should be shorter than 3 minutes. Think about videos that excite and inspire you on YouTube, Instagram or TikTok. Find music that communicates with you or compose something new. To be eligible for this award, first submit your fact sheet (required for all participants) and then submit a link to your video (optional). Judging for this award will be based on the effectiveness of the video in communicating the team’s sustainability challenge and solution, originality, and style.
Fact Sheet Requirements
Your proposal will be evaluated in terms of its novelty, feasibility, replicability, clarity, whether you make a compelling case for it, and its likely effectiveness in promoting the SDGs. Please ensure that your fact sheet follows the following stipulations:
CONTENTS OF FACT SHEET
Main Body: Use a combination of text and graphics. The text should be for a general audience and concise. The graphics should help communicate the challenge addressed, your proposal, and what it would achieve, if implemented.
These three elements must be included in the fact sheet:
1. The Challenge:
Describe the challenge addressed and explain how addressing this challenge bears on one or more of the SDGs, paying attention to relevant SDGs and keeping in mind the connections between people and nature.
Some questions to consider:
• How widespread is the challenge? Are many people or ecosystems or other forms of life affected?
• Does your proposal deal with a specific location or community? If so, explain.
• How does your idea tackle the imbalance between social and environmental SDGs?
2. Your Solution:
Clearly and concisely describe your main idea. Some questions to consider:
• Why do you believe the proposed action will be successful?
• Who or what will benefit from this action?
3. Implementation:
Describe your plans to achieve your intended result. Some questions to consider:
• How long will it take to implement your solution? How long will it stay in effect?
• What resources (financial, human, technological, physical, other) does it require?
• Would your proposal require or benefit from partnership with any companies, nonprofits, governments, or other organizations?
• What will be the main obstacles, and have you thought about how to overcome them?
• How will progress be monitored and evaluated?
Fact Sheet Formatting
Format Requirements:
• 1-3 pages in length
• Paper size: Standard 8.5 in. × 11 in. (A4, 210mm x 297mm)
• PDF document
Front Matter (Header Information – Banner Section):
This information must be included in a ‘header’ located in a banner above the main fact sheet content:
Please include the following information in a banner located above the main fact sheet content:
Project Title
Team Name
Name(s) of Team Member(s) - Include the Team Captain’s Email Address
University and Academic Affiliation for Each Team Member - Example: B.Sc. Mechanical Engineering, University of Pretoria, Faculty of Engineering and the Built Environment
Key SDGs Addressed by Your Solution - Example: SDG 7 (Affordable and Clean Energy), SDG 15 (Life on Land)
References and Acknowledgements:
The following information must be included at the end (bottom) of the fact sheet:
List up to five relevant articles, academic studies, or other sources of information you have used
If you discuss your idea with someone as an advisor, provide the person’s name, organization/institution and position, and email address
Acknowledge any additional organizations or individuals who provided significant guidance
*Important Note: Fact sheets must be in English*
Judging Criteria
Winning submissions will have that elusive “wow factor,” eliciting feelings of excitement and admiration! These are ambitious projects that the judges would like to recommend to the Gates Foundation for funding!
All entries will be evaluated in terms of the four criteria below for a maximum overall score of 60 points:
Point Value
Criteria
Description
20
Novelty / Originality
An original (new, innovative, ground-breaking) idea or synthesis of existing ideas into a new strategy that creatively advances one or more of the SDGs. An entry might also show originality by adapting to a new context (e.g. a different country or cultural or economic context) a strategy already used elsewhere, taking account of local challenges and proposing local partnerships, or addressing the imbalance between social and environmental SDGs.
20
Likely impact
The plan is likely to have a significant impact. A convincing case is made for implementability, showing how it would rely on, say, existing or new technology; established or new social organizations, or markets. Also, the initiative can be scaled up and widely replicated and will provide a model for others.
10
Connection to the SDGs
The entry mentions all relevant SDGs, indicates how the initiative will advance them, and addresses the imbalance between social and environmental SDGs.
10
Compelling Communication
The submission is written with clarity, visually engaging, easy for a non-specialist to follow, powerful, and compelling.
Competition Rules
Eligibility
A competing team must consist entirely of undergraduate students.
Individual undergraduate students at participating institutions are also invited to enter the competition. If so, they will form solo teams.
A competing team must be led by a student who is currently registered at a participating university or college; that student will serve as the primary contact for the team.
There is no maximum number of teammates. Teams are encouraged to include members across different disciplines (e.g., physics, history, journalism, and nuclear engineering). Students may be members of more than one team.
Members of a team can be from a single participating institution, or one or more participating institutions together with one or more nonparticipating universities or colleges.
Part-time undergraduate students are welcome to enter the competition provided they are either enrolled in a participating institution or a member of a team led by a student from a participating institution.
Students who are looking for teammates may use the “Find Teammates” discussing on our forum to find and recruit interested team members.
The competition coordinators will not become involved in disputes within teams.
All team members and all individual entrants must review, acknowledge, and agree to the competition rules. Submissions will otherwise be disqualified.
Non-confidentiality
All deliverables and presentations are accessible to the public. Some of the presentations may also be recorded and made available on university sites or on the internet. It is also expected that media personnel will cover this competition. Any and all of these recordings or deliverables may be broadcast to interested persons through media which may include radio, television, and the internet. The same material may also be made available to the printed media (newspapers, magazines, journals) for publication purposes. Any data or information discussed or divulged in the competition’s public sessions by entrants should be considered information that could possibly enter the public realm, and entrants should not assume any right of confidentiality in any data or information discussed, divulged, or presented in these sessions. If a team uses copyrighted materials and/or images from a third-party in their deliverables or presentations, they must in advance obtain permission and authorization from the owners to use this material. Also, that material must be appropriately cited and credited.
Selection
Judges will review all submitted fact sheets and select 10 to 12 finalist entries.
The final judges will select the winners from among the finalists.
An award (with a particular focus) will not be given if no submission meets the required criteria for that award.
The competition coordinators reserve the right to eliminate entrants based on non-compliance with rules or failure to submit mandatory deliverables. University of Illinois students are required to comply with the UIUC Student Code,
No-show or non-provision of deliverables
Failure to submit the required competition deliverables—without prior notification to the main competition coordinator (Prof. Leon Liebenberg)— will be regarded as a formal withdrawal from the competition.
Each team member is required to complete a short post-competition questionnaire at the time of the team’s final project submission. Failure by any team member to submit this questionnaire will result in disqualification of the team’s final project or fact sheet. This questionnaire is part of a broader research study titled “Evaluation of Pedagogies of Engagement,” approved by the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign Institutional Review Board (IRB) under protocol number 19162. The principal investigator for this study is Prof. Leon Liebenberg.
Intellectual Property
Innovator will retain all intellectual property rights to their technology.
Appeals, extensions, and exceptions
At the discretion of the competition coordinating team, extensions and exceptions may be offered. The competition coordinators reserve the right to review appeals on a case-by-case basis and rule on them with decisions that may differ from the rules.
Communications
The competition coordinating team will use a variety of communication channels to convey information to participants and the public. It is the sole responsibility of participants to ensure that they have made note of the various submission deadlines and requirements as stipulated on the competition website.
Final Presentations
The shortlisted teams present their solutions in-person or via Zoom to the team of judges at the competition's final award ceremony. This ceremony will be held in-person and/or online at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. No stand-ins will be permitted for any team member. If reasonable notice of cancellation is provided and other arrangements are made in advance with the main competition coordinator these changes will not count against your team.
A team may use some or all its participants as final presenters. The presentation time limit will remain as posted for each team’s total presentation.
Prizes
Prize money will be distributed to the team captains of the winning teams, who are responsible for allocating funds to their teammates.
Team captains must respond promptly to email inquiries from the HeroX organization to facilitate the timely disbursement of award money. Failure to respond within three weeks may result in the forfeiture of the competition award at HeroX’s discretion.
