FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS

WHAT IS WEGE PRIZE?

Wege Prize, organized by Kendall College of Art and Design’s Wege Center for Sustainable Design with support from the Wege Foundation, is an annual competition that ignites game-changing, circular 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 $65,000 (USD) in total cash prizes, all while helping to show the world what the future of problem solving looks like.

WHO CAN PARTICIPATE?

To be eligible to participate on a Wege Prize team, you must:

• Attend a college, university, or equivalent institution of higher education anywhere in the world
• Be a student enrolled in a full-time (or equivalent) undergraduate, graduate, or post-graduate program for the duration of the competition*

*Teams can be composed of a mix of undergraduate, graduate, and post-graduate students if they so choose. 

WHO CAN BE ON A TEAM TOGETHER?

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

• Have exactly five members
• Represent at least three (3) different academic disciplines
• Represent at least two (2) different institutions of higher education, such as 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.)*

*These are the minimum requirements. Teams with the greatest disciplinary diversity will likely have a higher probability of success.

HOW CAN I CONNECT WITH OTHER STUDENTS AND BUILD A TEAM?

Whether you're an individual looking to link up with others or a partial team looking for a few additional members, the Wege Prize LinkedIn Group is a great way to make connections and build a strong team! Request to join the group, and once approved, you can post in the discussion section to start connecting with potential teammates!

CAN I APPLY IF MY TEAM ALREADY HAS AN ESTABLISHED BUSINESS?

Yes. If you and your team are part of a registered business entity, you may apply with your business plan/project. However, you and your team members still must meet all of the team participation requirements.

If you would like your team’s award money to be paid out to your business, apply as a business entity and identify your business type on the application. If you make it to the semifinalist stage, we will require and request the following additional information:

• If all team members are not a part of the business: Written confirmation from each individual team member that they consent to any award funds going directly to the business.
• Completed tax form, depending on business type (W-9, W-8BENE, etc.)
• Business entity bank account information
• Any additional information that may be required, which may vary depending on business type
 

If we do not receive all requested information by the semifinalist submission deadline, the award funds will be split and paid to each individual team member, and they each will be responsible for any applicable taxes on their portion of the award.

If you would like the award money to be paid to each individual team member, please apply as a group of individuals regardless of your business status.

HOW CAN I APPLY TO PARTICIPATE?

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

WHAT IS THE CHALLENGE?

THE CHALLENGE FOR WEGE PRIZE PARTICIPANTS IS TO:

• Build a strong and diverse transdisciplinary team of five
• Identify a complex, “wicked” problem to address
• Develop a compelling solution to the problem that is built on three core principles of the circular economy:
 

1. ELIMINATE WASTE AND POLLUTION: We need to consider waste and pollution as design flaws rather than inevitable by-products of the things we make.
2. KEEP PRODUCTS AND MATERIALS IN USE: We need to design products to be reused, repaired, re-manufactured, or better yet: kept in circulation and out of the landfill.
3. REGENERATE OUR NATURAL SYSTEMS: We need to return nutrients to the soil and other systems to enhance our natural resources and ensure their prosperity.

POSSIBLE SOLUTIONS INCLUDE, BUT ARE NOT LIMITED TO:

• Products
• Services
• Business models

Over the course of nine months and four distinct phases, Wege Prize teams will grow their ideas from an informal research plan into a fully developed solution that can be prototyped and tested in the real world. Guided by direct feedback from competition judges, teams will work to rethink and redesign the way economies work by creating regenerative solutions that have a widespread and lasting positive impact.

HOW WILL MY TEAM'S WORK BE JUDGED?

WEGE PRIZE IS LOOKING FOR SOLUTIONS THAT ARE:

• Circular - helping accelerate the transition to a circular economy and a shift towards renewables
• Innovative - providing unique value and exploring untapped potential
• Viable - demonstrating marketability, profitability, and financial sustainability
• Scalable - moving effectively from local to global impact
• Systemic - accounting for the way in which parts of a system both influence each other and work as a whole

WEGE PRIZE IS NOT LOOKING FOR SOLUTIONS THAT ARE:

• Recycling/upcycling-focused - these approaches accept waste as inevitable—truly circular solutions design out waste entirely.
• Reliant on assumed behavioral change - if behavioral change is needed for your solution to work, how will you help drive it?
• Exclusively app-based - while an app can be one component of a circular solution, it cannot be the only component

WHAT IS A CIRCULAR ECONOMY?

A circular economy is one that is restorative by design, and which aims to keep products, components, and materials at their highest utility and value at all times. A circular economy provides a tightly looped, restorative economic cycle where resources can be re-adapted for use without limiting the desirability of products or the flow of revenue.

Imagine if we could design objects so that every material or component in them could be put to productive use at the end of that object’s useful life. By reusing materials at high quality instead of extracting new ones, we can save money and energy while having a positive impact on the natural environment.

Now imagine if we designed businesses or services that mimicked how living systems operated, so that they add value to the whole system. Living systems are generous; they give back more than they take out, operating on the basis of abundance.

Finally, imagine if the whole economic system was designed to facilitate these ideas; and imagine if it was all powered by clean, renewable energy. This is the essence of a circular economy.

WHAT IS A WICKED PROBLEM?

The term "wicked problem" denotes a broad issue - such as poverty, hunger, or environmental degradation - that is considerably resistant to resolution.  Efforts to grapple with one aspect of a wicked problem often reveal or create other obstacles that must be considered and overcome.

WHAT CAN MY TEAM WIN?

Wege Prize teams will contend for *$65,000 (USD) in total cash prizes, awarded by our panel of judges. Prizes are as follows:

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

All prizes are split equally among the five team members, unless you apply as a business entity and submit the additional required paperwork (See Can I apply if my team already has an established business?).

*Amount before applicable taxes. Tax situations vary by location, individual, and business tax status. 

HOW MUCH TIME DO I HAVE and what is the time commitment?

This will vary depending on how far your team moves through the competition. Following each of the competition’s four separate phases, the judges will advance a select number of teams on to the next phase. Ultimately, only five teams will advance to the fourth and final phase of the competition.

Is the final presentation in person?

Yes! We anticipate a live finals event in May of 2024. For those five finalist teams who are selected for Phase 4, each team will designate one team member to give the final presentation live in Grand Rapids, Michigan during the finals event. Travel expenses will be reimbursed, and hotel accommodation will be provided for the presenter. It is not required that all five team members attend the live event, although they are certainly welcome!