MIT Solve 2027 Global Challenges: $10,000 Solver Award and Partner Prizes

Captured cycle: This page is retained for historical guidance. Confirm whether the program has reopened before planning an application.

MIT Solve 2027 Global Challenges

MIT Solve’s 2027 Global Challenges are open during the captured cycle. The current round gives social innovators a route to pitch technology-based solutions in climate, economic prosperity, health, and learning. MIT Solve welcomes applications from around the world and across stages of development, with one important stage distinction: concept-stage ideas are reviewed only through its Indigenous Communities Fellowship. A Global Challenge applicant should have at least a functioning prototype and should choose the brief that closely matches the problem and people their solution serves.

The live challenge hub lists the active briefs, application links, and any changes from MIT Solve. The published deadline for the 2027 Global Challenges is November 2, 2026 at 12:00 p.m. EST. The program is open now; applicants submit through the online Solve platform and should check the selected challenge page for the controlling instructions.

At a glance

MIT Solve presents these as distinct challenge briefs under its Global Challenges program. Review the open list before starting: a single team lead, solution, or organization may apply to more than one Global Challenge when the solution fits, but a team that advances beyond initial judging in multiple challenges will be asked to select one challenge for the next stage. A team lead cannot submit multiple solutions to the same Global Challenge.

Choose the brief that fits your work

The challenge pages share a common application and selection framework, but each brief describes a different problem and signals the solutions MIT Solve wants to see. Read the full brief, including its FAQs, before deciding where to apply.

• Climate: The 2027 Global Climate Challenge asks how communities can adapt equitably to a warming climate and decarbonize how people live and eat. Its interests include resilient, low-carbon cities; protection from heat, floods, drought, and wildfire; climate-resilient and lower-emission food systems; and restoration and sustainable use of ocean and coastal systems. It looks for practical approaches that can work within real infrastructure, budgets, and local decision-making.
• Economic prosperity: The 2027 Global Economic Prosperity Challenge focuses on financial resilience, quality employment, and safe, affordable housing. The brief highlights financial health for households and small businesses, routes into quality work—especially for young people and people excluded from formal labor markets—and housing access and resilience for vulnerable, informally settled, or displaced populations.
• Learning: The 2027 Global Learning Challenge concerns closing education gaps and improving what learners can do. Its interests include tools that strengthen teachers’ practice, support low-resource and emergency settings, improve access for learners with disabilities or those using less widely served languages, and assess learning so educators can intervene. The brief emphasizes technology that deepens learning and supports human relationships rather than replacing them.
• Health: The 2027 Global Health Challenge asks how technology can make good health and quality care more equitable for all. The health area page identifies this 2027 call as accepting solutions. Open its challenge page from that listing and use the full brief to confirm priority populations, needs, and any special conditions before writing a response.

A strong fit is more than a broad connection to a topic. For example, an organization working in food distribution might align with climate if it can explain the emissions or resilience benefit, or with economic prosperity if its central outcome is better livelihoods. Choose the brief whose core problem, intended users, and proposed change most directly match the evidence you can present.

Funding and program support

Every team selected into the 2027 Solver class receives a $10,000 grant funded by MIT Solve. The program page describes access to a pool of more than $1 million in prize funding at selection and further opportunities during the program year and afterward. MIT Solve reports that Solver teams receive an average of $40,000 each following selection; that is an average, not a guaranteed award for an individual applicant. Additional prizes have their own eligibility rules and may be limited by geography, topic, or technology.

The current prize list includes several partner awards. For example, the AI for Humanity Prize may award up to $150,000 to at least one Solver team from the 2027 Global Challenges. The Citizens Workforce Innovation Prize offers $100,000 to at least one U.S.-based Solver team. The Community Catalyst Prize may award up to $200,000 to a team or teams addressing financial opportunity or housing access in the United States, and may also select an existing Solver alumni team. Other prize descriptions or amounts can change; check the prize section on the official challenge page before treating an award as part of your funding plan.

Selected teams also join a nine-month support program. MIT Solve describes tailored workshops that can cover areas such as marketing, public relations, monitoring and evaluation, and business models; leadership coaching; in-kind or pro-bono resources; and connections with impact-minded leaders and past Solver teams. Selected teams should expect to spend about 25 hours across coaching, workshops, and virtual events. The current program information also lists four-day Solver Orientation in Cambridge in April and four-day Solve Challenge Finals in New York City in September. Confirm the logistics and dates in selection communications. Solver status provides access to later funding and support opportunities, but those are competitive and should not be counted as guaranteed revenue.

Who can apply

MIT Solve describes its Global Challenges as open innovation calls for human-centered, technology-based solutions, with a diverse portfolio across geography and development stage. Applicants do not need to be affiliated with MIT. The official FAQ defines stages from concept through scale. A concept is an idea still being researched or developed without a functioning prototype; concept-stage ideas are reviewed only through the Indigenous Communities Fellowship. The 2027 Global Challenges accept prototype, pilot, growth, and scale solutions, provided they address the selected brief and meet its requirements. A prototype is an initial working version that may still be receiving feedback or testing with users. Pilot-stage solutions have launched in at least one community and are still refining their design or business model. Growth-stage solutions have a consistent approach and are ready to expand, while scale-stage solutions already operate across many communities or countries and are prepared for significant expansion.

Technology is interpreted broadly. The program accepts software, mobile and SMS tools, artificial intelligence, robotics, data systems, and other technical approaches, as well as traditional, ancestral, and natural technologies or knowledge systems applied to practical needs. A novel digital product is not a prerequisite. Explain clearly how the chosen knowledge or technology works in context and why it improves on available approaches.

Organizations and teams should also check prior participation rules. MIT Solve says a person or organization selected previously as a Solver may apply again, but the application must be for a new solution, not the same solution previously selected. The challenge FAQs contain the detailed definitions and exceptions, so direct eligibility questions to Solve before submission if the distinction is unclear.

What reviewers assess

The selection process begins with screening by Solve staff and community members, followed by expert review. The official criteria reward both a credible response to the challenge and a practical plan for delivering it:

1. Alignment: the solution uses technology to address the selected Global Challenge.
2. Potential for impact: the proposed implementation can make a meaningful difference for the intended population.
3. Feasibility: the team has a practical plan suited to the local context and available resources.
4. Innovative approach: the solution brings a useful technology, application, business model, or process to the problem.
5. Human-centered design: the work is designed with and for underserved communities, and the team can show relevant relationships, experience, data, or knowledge.
6. Scalability: the plan can remain financially viable and reach more people.
7. Partnership potential: the application explains how connections and resources from the Solve community could help.
8. Technical feasibility: where technology is novel, provide convincing evidence that it has been built and works as described.

Scalability, partnership potential, and technical feasibility receive additional consideration at finalist selection and later stages, according to the challenge FAQ. Reviewers are not only looking for an appealing idea. They need to see who will use the solution, how it fits into real systems, what results matter, and what evidence supports the team’s account.

How to apply

Applications are submitted online through the Solve platform. MIT Solve says that most applicants spend several hours completing the application, so allow time for team review and a final check before submitting.

1. Compare the open briefs. Start at the challenge hub and open each relevant 2027 page. Confirm the challenge question, its priority interests, stage expectations, and any location-specific partner-prize criteria. Apply only to a brief that genuinely fits the solution.
2. Sign in or create an account. MIT Solve’s application guide starts with logging in or creating an account. Open the chosen challenge and select “Start Solution.”
3. Choose an individual or team submission. A person applying individually owns the solution through the account used to start it. A team applicant can select an existing team or create one and invite members by email; the team lead is designated in the team owner’s dashboard. Confirm who will own and lead the application before entering detailed responses.
4. Create the solution profile when prompted. Some challenges ask applicants to fill out a profile with basic information that may provide a starting point for later applications. Save the profile if useful, then proceed to the challenge’s application questions. Do not assume every question is required: the platform marks required questions, and all required answers must be complete to submit.
5. Answer the challenge questions with evidence. Describe the problem and affected community, the solution and its technology, how it is delivered, what has been tested, and what outcomes have been observed or will be measured. Explain feasibility, sustainability, and the partnerships needed to carry the work forward. Keep claims about reach, results, and readiness proportionate to evidence. Review optional questions too; MIT Solve encourages applicants to complete them.
6. Review and submit in the platform. The application can be reviewed and submitted once required questions are complete. MIT Solve recommends submitting as soon as the required answers are ready; applicants can continue to edit answers, including optional ones, until the deadline. A downloaded PDF is only a reference and does not submit an application. The current deadline is November 2, 2026 at 12:00 p.m. EST; applications submitted after it will not be considered. Save the confirmation and a copy of the submitted responses.

Application clinics are workshops designed to help applicants refine submissions. The challenge hub links to clinic resources and the application guidance page; check there for upcoming sessions and practical instructions. The how-to-apply page also points applicants to help text within application questions, where available, for explanations and examples. For technical or eligibility questions, MIT Solve lists [email protected] and asks applicants to allow three to five business days for a response. The platform saves solutions automatically, but applicants with an unstable connection may wish to draft answers offline and paste them into the form later.

Prepare a focused, credible application

Start with the people affected and the specific barrier they face. Avoid defining the problem so broadly that the proposed work sounds interchangeable with dozens of unrelated projects. State the population, setting, and bottleneck, then explain how the solution changes the path from the current situation to a better outcome.

Show how the solution functions in practice. If users need a phone, reliable data, a trained worker, local permissions, or a physical supply chain, say so. Explain how you handle those dependencies in places with limited infrastructure or public resources. When a community organization, school, clinic, employer, government agency, or local business is essential to implementation, clarify its role and whether the relationship already exists.

Use measures that connect to outcomes rather than activity alone. A count of workshops or downloads may help explain delivery, but it does not show whether people learned more, became safer, increased income, gained reliable access to care, or experienced lower climate risk. State how the team collects its evidence, what period it covers, and what limitations remain. For an early prototype, distinguish tests from proven impact and give a realistic plan to learn from the next deployment.

Make the sustainability argument specific. A path to scale could involve public procurement, earned revenue, a delivery partnership, a cooperative, philanthropic support, or a mix. Identify who bears costs, what a next stage requires, and how the model can continue without assuming that a prize will solve every operating constraint. A clear financial plan helps reviewers assess feasibility and scalability even when the solution is not yet financially self-sustaining.

Dates and current status

The published application window opened on September 22, 2026 at 9:00 a.m. EDT and closes on November 2, 2026 at 12:00 p.m. EST. MIT Solve labels the 2027 Global Challenge pages “Accepting Solutions.” The separate 10th Anniversary Global Challenge is a completed prior call; its prize terms and eligibility should not be carried over to this round. The current briefs accept prototype, pilot, growth, and scale-stage solutions in the Global Challenges, while concept-stage applications are routed to the Indigenous Communities Fellowship. The 2027 Indigenous Communities Fellowship is itself open during the same application window, but it has a distinct focus and should not be treated as a substitute for a Global Challenge brief unless its community and solution criteria fit.

The May 21, 2026 date associated with an earlier Solve listing was the submission deadline for the 10th Anniversary Global Challenge, a separate round that is now closed. It does not apply to the 2027 Global Challenges. Those applications opened September 22, 2026 at 9:00 a.m. EDT and are due November 2, 2026 at 12:00 p.m. EST. The official challenge hub currently labels the 2027 briefs “Accepting Solutions.”

MIT Solve may update application details or partner awards while the window is active. Use the official challenge hub and the specific challenge page as the final authority before submitting, especially for deadline timing, prize conditions, and the fields or materials the online form requires.