• US$5 million offered to entrants from the region and the world, for bold ideas to re-model global governance for 21st century
• Global Challenges Foundation hopes to stimulate urgent global debate about how the world community manages global risks – such climate change, violent conflict and extreme poverty
• Entries should look at ways to contribute to the re-shaping of global governance in order to safeguard future generations
• Open to individuals from all fields including academia, politics, business and civil society

24 November 2016, Abu Dhabi:  A US$5 million prize competition has been launched by the Global Challenges Foundation – an independent Swedish organisation- to seek innovative solutions  -  to identify new models of global co-operation capable of handling the most serious threats to humanity including climate change, violent conflict and extreme poverty.  The competition is open to individuals, groups and organisations in the region - and across the world. 
The Global Challenges Prize 2017: A New Shape was launched today by the Stockholm-based Global Challenges Foundation, set up in 2012 with the aim of deepening understanding of global risks and galvanizing more effective responses to them.  

The prize competition is based on the premise that human innovation can help us rise to the challenge of 21st century risks that transcend national borders and can affect populations all around the world.

“Today’s risks are so global and so urgent that they require novel thinking to help eradicate them,” said Global Challenges Foundation founder Laszlo Szombatfalvy, an investor, author and philanthropist who built his career in Sweden through the successful analysis of financial risk. “The world is trying to solve today’s problems with yesterday’s tools. We believe a new shape of collaboration is needed to address the most critical challenges in our globalised world.”     

The New Shape Prize will ask entrants to design frameworks for international decision-making equipped to address today’s global challenges with a focus on climate change, major environmental damage, violent conflict (including nuclear and other weapons of mass destruction) and extreme poverty. Entrants are also asked to consider the implications of a rising world population, forecast by the United Nations to reach 11bn by 2100. The prize is open to anyone – individuals, groups and organisations – anywhere in the world.

“We believe that the human ingenuity that has allowed us to eradicate diseases, bring down poverty levels and stabilize the hole in the ozone layer, can, if properly channeled, play a role in averting the greatest risks to our survival,” said Mr Szombatfalvy. “If we can tap this creativity and apply it to designing a better decision-making system for the world community, then we will have a chance of preserving our world for future generations.”

The Global Challenges Foundation is publicizing its New Shape Prize worldwide, partnering with respected institutions on multiple continents in an effort to reach the brightest minds and most visionary thinkers whether they come from academia, policy-making, civil society, business, technology or law. This outreach effort includes collaborating closely with experts and practitioners currently working within existing global governance institutions such as the United Nations.

The Global Challenges Foundation emphasized that the prize competition was not seeking solutions to the individual risks in question, but for the global decision-making structures that would allow the world community to tackle them more effectively. 

The competition is open until May 24, 2017. Entries will be evaluated by a panel of academic experts. The best proposals will then be judged by a high level international jury comprised of respected figures of global stature. Final awards will be made in November 2017.

The Global Challenges Foundation said it was committed to promoting the winning ideas following their announcement in order to generate debate around how they could be implemented and will look to support promising entrants to develop their ideas where appropriate.

Through its New Shape Prize, the Global Challenges Foundation hopes to stimulate urgent global debate at the highest levels about how the world community manages global risks and to contribute to the re-shaping of global governance in order to safeguard future generations.