Young SDG Innovators Programme
Participants Overview
Supported by:
In addition to engaging and empowering young professionals, the Young SDG Innovators Programme offers several other opportunities for sustainability and innovation professionals to leverage their expertise and experience while building new talents and skills.
Companies applying for the programme have the opportunity to nominate individuals as:
Innovators
Innovators are entrepreneurial young professionals (35 years or younger) representing their company to take part in the programme to develop and drive innovative SDG business solutions.
Either in teams or working alone, the Innovators will, over the course of 10 months, work on a challenge specific to their company with the goal of designing more sustainable business models, initiatives and products that will advance the company’s sustainability efforts while driving innovation and delivering tangible solutions with potential market value.
Participation comprises 10 days of inperson meetings across five (5) innovation camps over the course of 10 months.
Innovators are also expected to spend an estimated two to three hours weekly on online self-learning and collaboration activities in between meetings through online challenges, activities and group work.
Champions
The team Champion will be responsible for supporting the company’s Innovator team and acting as a link between the team and the company management to embed and implement the ideas and outcomes of the programme into the company’s strategy and operations, Representing senior management, Champions will play an integral role in the programme by promoting the work of the Innovator team internally and ensuring the innovation models and ideas developed in the programme are aligned with the company’s needs and strategy.
During the ID-month programme, Champions are required to have four (4) meetings with the Innovator team to validate and discuss their project.
Champions are also required to arrange at least one opportunity for the Innovator team to meet with senior management to present their project and programme outcomes.
In addition, your company can also identify individuals to participate in the programme as Mentors, Experts and Facilitators.
Mentors
SDG Innovation Mentors will help shape the ambitions and plans of the Innovator teams, serving as advisors to the teams as they identify a sustainable development challenge relevant to their company and develop a solution that will address it, Mentors will support the teams in their efforts to frame their challenge, applying sustainable business and innovation concepts to create prototypes and tangible business solutions with real market potential.
Throughout the programme, Mentors will play a pivotal role in shepherding the team’s journey from ideation to development to a presentation of their solution to their company’s senior management.
Mentors are expected to attend the five 2-day Innovation camps with the Innovator teams as well as spend 1-2 hours biweekly meeting with their teams.
Experts
The Global SDG Innovation Expert Group will serve as a key component of the programme, contributing to the development of new ideas and solutions.
Experts will leverage their specific technical knowledge to provide critical analysis and insight for Innovators to be able to identify relevant challenges for their business and design the solutions to address them.
Participation requires offering one two-hour webinar on a monthly or bi-monthly basis for an 8-month period to provide feedback, guidance and technical expertise to global Innovator teams and their projects, Additional — yet optional — engagements include participation in in-person workshop sessions for Innovators and serving as a panelist for project pitch competitions.
Facilitators
Facilitators are experienced professionals who lead the Innovator camps and guide the Innovator teams through the innovation design process during the in-person meetings.
Facilitators support the teams in navigating the process and different challenges and ensure the workshops and activities allow for experiential learning and dynamic and interactive dialogue and teamwork.
It is the facilitator’s role to motivate, engage and energize the participants through the day’s activities and sessions.
Facilitators should be available for the full duration of the camp (2 days), including 2-3 hours of online or in-person preparatory and briefing activities.