Around the globe, college and university students with big ideas for making the world better are applying for Wege Prize, an international design competition with a prize pool of $65,000 USD. Winning submissions gain recognition for their innovations in sustainability and circularity that solve some of today’s biggest problems — pollution, hunger, waste, and more.

The application period this year is open now and closes October 8th. 
Have a good idea?
Apply today!

Five finalist teams for Wege Prize will make public presentations of their game-changing ideas next May. Between now and then, they’ll receive valuable feedback from Wege Prize’s expert judges, so that the multidisciplinary competitors can refine their solutions and advance their ideas for making the world better. For more details, visit www.wegeprize.org/timeline and apply!

This year, Wege Prize recognized a concept to turn banana waste into faux leather, a system for community composting, a technique for making valuable resources from wastewater, and a biodegradable substitute for plastic packaging, among others.

About Wege Prize 2024

Wege Prize is the international design competition of Kendall College of Art and Design of Ferris State University (KCAD). It’s a collaborative design challenge focused on catalyzing real-world solutions for the circular economy, and winning student teams receive cash awards, thanks to the continuing support of The Wege Foundation.

Since 2013, KCAD has inspired college and university students from around the world to envision a sustainable future through Wege Prize. Competing teams start with a diverse, transdisciplinary team of five, identify a “wicked problem” to address, and develop a compelling solution — product, service, or business model — that builds on three core principles of the circular economy:

• Eliminate waste and pollution.
• Keep products and materials in use.
• Regenerate our natural systems.

Over nine months, with extensive feedback from expert judges, the student teams nurture their ideas and prepare to share their plans with the outside world. The ideas that the judges deem best positioned for real-world success advance through four phases. The top teams present their solutions to a global audience at the 2024 Wege Prize Awards event in the late spring.
 
Collaborating, designing, planning, and testing, the teams yield winning solutions that gain wide attention and even acclaim, seen in news media and recognized by their own institutions.
 
Is your idea ready to win? 
Join the movement! 

Last year, Wege Prize drew dozens of teams representing varied academic disciplines from over 30 countries in Asia, Africa, Europe, and the Americas. This year it could be your turn. Apply at www.wegeprize.org/apply.

About Wege Prize
Wege Prize, a West Michigan-born concept developed by Kendall College of Art and Design of Ferris State University’s (KCAD’s) Wege Center for Sustainable Design with the support of The Wege Foundation, is an annual competition that ignites games-changing solutions for the future by inspiring college students around the world to collaborate across institutional, disciplinary, and cultural boundaries and redesign the way economies work. To learn more, go to wegeprize.org.

About KCAD 
Located in the heart of downtown Grand Rapids, Michigan, Kendall College of Art and Design of Ferris State University (KCAD) is committed to creating lasting impact in West Michigan and beyond through collaborative partnerships, cultural innovation, and an educational model that prepares students for leadership in design, the visual arts, and art history; provides innovative, collaborative education that fosters intellectual growth and individual creativity; and promotes the ethical and civic responsibilities of artists and designers, locally and globally. For more information, please visit kcad.edu. 

About The Wege Foundation
Planting seeds that develop leaders in economicology, health, education, and arts, and enhance the lives of people in West Michigan and around the world. For more information, please visit wegefoundation.com.