world in 2050 challenge
The 2050 Challenge is a yearly global award list for the best startups, research, inventions, and organizations tackling the world's most intractable challenges in seven categories. Each of the seven clusters represent a major trend that will be transformative for our long-term future. Nominations are accepted on a rolling basis and winners are announced quarterly.
The top solution from each category is championed in all major global forums including: the United Nations General Assembly, the G7 Summit (Formerly the G8), G20 Summit, APEC Summit, IMF & World Bank annual meetings as well as distributed through global publications and media partners.
Whether you are a writer or an engineer, a student or a business leader, we want you to be a part of this. We want to use our global platform and connections to showcase your work and help take you to the next level: recognition, partnerships, and even funding!
Read the eligibility criteria here.
There is no question we will soon live longer, work less, and know more than ever before. But what will we do in this post-employment world? How will it function? How will society relate to knowledge, information, and new social classes (those who have or create the knowledge and those who consume it)? Supercomputers, drones, robots, transformative gadgets, quantum computing, 3D Printers, etc. These advancements are allowing us to re-imagine and re-engineer our world. But what will they mean for the future of our society?
We know Artificial Intelligence will reign supreme in our imaginations but the World in 2050 will not be a battleground between AIs and humans. Augmented humans will test the limits of humanity and they are already walking among us now. Biotechnology and gene editing are allowing us to engineer a new kind of human, one that will be more resilient to disease. But what are the ethical and legal implications of these advancements?
Humans’ impact on the planet is so irreversibly profound that exploring alternative forms of energy will be paramount to our species' survival in the long term. Innovations and cutting-edge research is already in the works but the goal of our generation will be to become less and less dependent (and eventually completely independent) from fossil fuels. Can we engineer innovations that will save us from climate change and that are profitable and sustainable?
On a large scale, humanity is struggling against bacteria and disease as well as non-communicable diseases (NCDs). Today our focus is on primary prevention (intervening before a disease is developed) or secondary prevention (preventing progression of a disease when you are already sick). In the near future, we will be solving for “primordial prevention,” looking at the prevention of the risk factors in the first place, and we will treat age as a disease that not only can be “cured” but can be prevented.
Flying cars, the Hyperloop, intergalactic travel? These are not Sci-Fi visions of the future but the world now. At the famous World’s Fair in New York in 1939, GM envisioned a futuristic society where highways connected the rural to the urban. With 70% of the world’s population moving to the urban sphere in the coming decades, innovating in the transportation realm will be paramount.
Space is the next great frontier for our civilization and becoming a multi-planetary species is one of the most important future forward achievements we can strive for. Advancements in space flight and moonshots by both private sector (SpaceX and Virgin Galactic) and governments (i.e. UAE’s Mars 2117 initiative) will make ours the first Mars Generation. What is your vision for the future of space travel?
What about art, poetry, or inventions for things and issues that have not even been imagined yet? What is the role of pop culture or film in solving for the future? This category is for the dreamers who will marry the practical to the whimsical.
Read reports & papers from World in 2050 global forums and summits.
