The 2025 edition of the international ‘Wege Prize’ design competition is open to college and university students worldwide with ideas for accelerating the shift to a circular economy.
Led by the Wege Center for Sustainable Design at Kendall College of Art and Design of Ferris State University (KCAD), the annual five person team competition asks students to collaborate ‘across institutional, disciplinary, and cultural boundaries to redesign products and systems for a more circular economy’. Teams are asked to identify a ‘wicked problem’ to address and develop a solution: ‘products, services, systems, and more — that builds on core principles of the circular economy’.
The top teams win a prize pool of $65,000.
Wege Prize winners in recent years include African students who pioneered a ‘charcoal cooling concept that slashes post-harvest losses for vegetable farmers, U.S. students with an innovative wastewater treatment technique to extract raw materials for reuse, and Canadian students addressing the issue of e-waste by extracting valuable rare earth elements (REEs)’. They were all part of the 2024 field of 58 competing teams representing 38 countries across five continents.
The deadline to enter this year’s competition is 6 October. Check out our challenges page for more opportunities.
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The post New circular design competition is open to students worldwide first appeared on Innovators magazine.