Register & Prepare!

Anyone can now register on https://gdc2022.devpost.com/participants to take part in the Global Design Challenge 2022, with the challenge running from 10-14^th October 2022. 

UNIC European University CityLabs are supporting the formation of international UNIC teams to participate in the Global Design Challenge with a dedicated UNIC incubation award on offer. Partners from across the UNIC European University interested in forming international UNIC teams can contact ciara.ohalloran@ucc.ie. 

There are a number of resources already available to help you including the recorded sessions from the April Warm Up Event here and links to the previous Global Design Challenges in 2020 and 2021

What is the Global Design Challenge?

The Global Design Challenge for Sport and Physical Activity crowdsources radical, innovative ideas that enable people of all ages and abilities to lead active healthy lives. Ideas come from around the globe with best ideas incubated and/or taken up by national and global partners.

The Global Design Challenge 2022 builds on the success of the GDC 2020 and 2021, which were created and led by University College Cork (UCC). This year the Global Design Challenge network welcomes two international alliances of universities – European University of Post-Industrial Cities (UNIC) and the East London Global Sport Coalition.

This global initiative generates ambitious, innovative ideas links and directly to a number of UN Sustainable Development Goals, as called out in the Kazan Action Plan of 2017, particularly those relating to social impact, inclusion and equality (SDGs 5 & 10), but also wider goals around health, education, economics, the environment and governance. The initiative has also benefitted from UNESCO patronage.  

Join the Global Design Challenge on: https://gdc2022.devpost.com/

Call for UNIC Teams

The UNIC European University CityLabs are supporting the formation of international UNIC teams to participate in the Global Design Challenge. Teams should include participants from at least two of the UNIC Universities. UNIC teams will be eligible for the main Global Design Challenge Prize, as well as a dedicated UNIC incubation award delivered by IGNITE, an award-winning start-up incubation programme based at University College Cork.  

A number of UNIC teams are currently being formed. Contact ciara.ohalloran@ucc.ie to find out more about connect with an existing UNIC Challenge Proposer or with a proposed challenge that you would like to take forward and find UNIC partners to join you in forming a team. 

The Challenge 2022

The 2022 challenge focuses on inclusion. The invitation is for teams to innovate new ideas to:

‘increase opportunities for engagement in sport and physical activity ensuring that it is accessible to everyone of any ability, age, race or socio-economic background’.

Objectives

• Furthering the association between Sport and Physical Activity and achievement of the UN Sustainable Development Goals
• Providing Design Thinking training to develop human-centred innovation in Sport and Physical Activity
• Enlisting innovation and design thinking departments and students to push the boundaries of possibility in the Sport and Physical Activity sector
• Ensuring communities, non-governmental organisations and businesses are engaged with universities to ground ideas in real needs and solutions.
• Supporting the best teams immediately post-challenge to maintain the momentum in their development and supporting them in connecting with relevant partners.

Intended Impact

The GDC 2022 will:

• Showcase university talent and innovation in collaboration with communities, non-government organisations and businesses
• Make a significant contribution to the Sport and Physical Activity Sector
• Further the understanding and connection between Sport and Physical Activity and the UN Sustainable Development Goals

April Warm Up Event

In preparation for the Global Design Challenge for Sport and Physical Activity (GDC) 2022, an online ‘warmup’ event was held on April 28 from 9:00-13:00 Irish time (10:00-14:00 Central Europe Time). The warmup was an opportunity for potential Design Challenge participants to find out more about the initiative, benefit from expert insights and get guidance on how to start preparing for the Challenge Week which will run in October 2022.

View the GDC Warm Up Event Programme

View Resources from the April Warm Up Event here.