Global Poverty Alleviation Competition

The Blum Center for Developing Economies supports innovative approaches to poverty alleviation. Through its commitment to multi-disciplinary research and teaching, and emphasis on novel technologies and approaches, the Blum Center fosters student projects that tie UC Berkeley expertise to real-world problems. For our competition, describe an action-oriented project that would help alleviate poverty while involving students.

Possible areas of innovation include (but are not limited to) financial services, wireless technologies and services, education, health care and agriculture.

Proposals will be evaluated on the following basis: Novelty of the idea/approach; Ability to foster inter-disciplinary student collaboration; Plans for scale and sustainability; Potential for broad impact.

Background

The Blum Center links world-class faculty, inspiring new curriculum, and innovative technologies, services and business models to create real-world solutions for developing economies. We educate students, build partnerships, and rigorously evaluate our innovations in order to create scalable and sustainable contributions toward the alleviation of poverty.

The training of the next generation of scholars, researchers, and professionals is central to the mission of the Blum Center. Our signature program is an interdisciplinary undergraduate minor in Global Poverty and Practice. Launched in 2007, it provides the theoretical frameworks, methods and skills, and creative opportunities necessary for students to participate in forms of practice that engage global poverty in imaginative and practical ways. Nearly 500 students from majors ranging from Economics to Engineering, Molecular & Cell Biology to Anthropology, Architecture to Public Health, are currently enrolled in the Minor. These students each complete a global practice experience that reflects their academic interests and ethical commitments.

The Blum Center identifies the most promising technologies and services to address poverty alleviation in developing countries. Center faculty and students transform technologies into socially useful innovations while partnering with companies and local community organizations to deliver and scale these solutions. We are currently engaged in applied research projects in more than 20 countries.

Competition Rules

The Global Poverty Alleviation Competition is open to all graduate and undergraduate students at UC Berkeley, UC Davis and UC San Francisco. Multidisciplinary teams are strongly encouraged.

For additional information about general contest rules, timing and how to apply, please refer to the Contest Application Guidelines

Prizes will be awarded only if there are high-quality submissions and are expected to be used to support the proposed activities (e.g., research, travel, workshops, project expenses). Decisions of the judges are final and not subject to appeal.