Call for Applications: Wege Prize 2026 for Innovators ($65,000 total prize) Deadline: 5 October, 2025

Applications are open for the Wege Prize 2026. Wege Prize is an annual competition that ignites game-changing solutions for the future by inspiring college/university students around the world to collaborate across institutional, disciplinary, and cultural boundaries to redesign the way economies work.

Participants contend for $65,000USD in total cash prizes with innovative solutions that are powered by human-centered design, underpinned by a shift to renewable energy, and built on the three core principles of the circular economy. 

The Challenge

Over the course of nine months, Wege Prize teams will compete to advance through up to four distinct phases of competition, growing their ideas from a preliminary proposal into a robust and feasible solution informed by research, market analysis, and real-world prototyping and testing. Each step of the way, they will be guided by direct feedback from a panel of expert judges who will help them strengthen their ideas, push the limits of possibility, and support bringing their plans into fruition.

Broadly speaking, the challenge of Wege Prize is to:

• Build a strong and diverse team: Teams with the greatest disciplinary and institutional diversity will likely have a higher probability of success.
• Identify a “wicked” problem to address: A “wicked” problem is highly complex problem that involves multiple stakeholder groups and is especially resistant to resolution. Efforts to solve one aspect of the problem often reveal or create other obstacles that must be addressed as well.
• Develop a compelling circular solution: Whether they take the form of a product, service, business, or something else, solutions should be driven by the three core principles of the circular economy.

Prizes

• 1st Place: $30,000 (USD)
• 2nd Place: $20,000 (USD)
• 3rd Place: $10,000 (USD)
• Finalist Award (x2): $2,500 (USD)

Eligibility

Teams

To be eligible to participate in Wege Prize, teams must:

• Have exactly five (5) members (no more, no less)
• Represent at least three (3) different academic disciplines (in terms of each participant’s current program of study–previously completed degree programs are not considered)
• Represent at least two (2) different institutions of higher education* (colleges, universities, or separate colleges/schools within a larger university) *For instance, a team member from Example University’s School of Engineering and a team member from Example University’s School of Earth Sciences would be considered as representing two different institutions

Individuals

To be eligible to join a Wege Prize team, individuals must:

• Be currently enrolled in a undergraduate, graduate, or post-graduate degree program program at a college, university, or equivalent institution of higher education anywhere in the world. (Teams can be composed of a mix of undergraduate, graduate, and post-graduate students if they so choose.)
• Be enrolled as a full-time (or equivalent) student for the duration of the competition. (If you are graduating before May of 2026, you must be enrolled as a student through at least December 15, 2025.

Application

Participants must apply as a team of five, and must meet the aforementioned team participation requirements.

Deadline: October 5, 2025

For more information, visit Wege Prize.