The IDEAS Social Innovation Challenge is MIT’s 20+ year-old social entrepreneurship program housed in the PKG Public Service Center. Since its founding in 2001, IDEAS has enabled MIT student-led teams to apply their education and expertise in collaboration with community partners to address social and environmental challenges around the world. Through IDEAS, MIT students recruit a team from anywhere in the world and develop a creative solution in partnership with impacted stakeholders. IDEAS teams benefit from a supportive body of reviewers, mentors, and funding ranging from $1,000 – $20,000.
2023-2024 Timeline for IDEAS Challenge
Applications open on Tuesday, September 19, 2023, and close on Friday, December 1, 2023, by 11:59PM ET.
Events
- October 4, 2023: Arts Startup Incubator Launch Event
- October 12, 2023: Health Equity Venture Creation Info Session & Panel
- October 25, 2023: Creative Cafe with IDEAS Social Innovation challenge & the Arts Startup Incubator
Looking for inspiration? Watch the 2023 IDEAS Awards Ceremony!
The 2023 IDEAS Challenge grantees were announced at the close of the ceremony. Five teams received juried grants to implement their projects. These teams were selected by a group of experts across a variety of industries who volunteered as IDEAS judges. For the fourth year, IDEAS partnered with MIT Solve to present three additional teams with a Crowd Favorite Award. The winning teams include:
- $20,000 grant: LifeSaveHer
- $15,000 grant: Medikana
- $10,000 grant: SOS (Sustainable Ocean Solutions)
- $7,500 grant: Ishara
- $5,000 grant: New Majority Capital Foundation
- $2,500 Crowd Favorite Award: La Firme
- $2,500 Crowd Favorite Award: Tanki
- $2,500 Crowd Favorite Award: Nurtur
Talk to us about IDEAS
Questions? Email: mitpkgideas@mit.edu
Additional Program Offerings
Chat and Chew: If you are new to IDEAS and the concept of social innovation or social entrepreneurship and want to learn about it, you can join our Chat & Chew luncheons throughout the academic year. Register for workshops above. Request recordings of AY20-21 by emailing mitpkgideas@mit.edu
Resource Connector: We continue to share opportunities and resources for MIT and non-MIT student social innovators and entrepreneurs via our Resource Connector linked here.
MIT Social Entrepreneurship and Innovation (SE+I) Ecosystem Institute-wide Slack Workspace: Connect with students, faculty and different program administrators to learn about the various other programs across MIT here. Be sure to search the Slack workspace name ‘mit-se-innovation’ to locate and join. This is an MIT community-only resource. Once you have joined, you may invite any member of the MIT community.
