About Graduate Institute Geneva Challenge
Application Opening for the 2025 Graduate Institute Geneva Challenge, the 2025 Advancing Development Goals International Contest for Graduate Students aims to present innovative and pragmatic solutions to address the challenges of migration.
Eager to stimulate reflection and innovation on development issues from diverse disciplinary and contextual perspectives and with the generous support of Ambassador Jenö Staehelin, the Graduate Institute launched the Advancing Development Goals Contest, an international competition for Master students, in 2014.
The idea is to gather contributions that are both theoretically grounded and offer pragmatic solutions to a relevant international development problem stemming from an interdisciplinary collaboration between three to five enrolled master students from anywhere in the world.
The world is currently experiencing one of the largest waves of migration in history. In 2020, over 280 million individuals (or 3.6% of the world’s population) lived outside their country of birth. Meanwhile, migration occurs within a country’s borders.
The number of people forcibly displaced by conflict, persecution, and climate-related disasters has increased over the past decades, reaching 122.6 million in 2024.
Among them, 43.7 million are formally recognised as refugees. The vast majority of refugees, around 71%, are hosted by low- and middle-income countries that often face significant challenges in meeting the needs of their own populations.
Just as voluntary migration occurs within a country’s borders, so does forced displacement, referred to as internal displacement. In 2024, the 72.1 million internally displaced people made up more than half of all forcibly displaced people globally.
Migration is an integral part of human history, shaping economies, cultures, and societies across the globe. However, migration also presents complex challenges.
In addition to affecting the migrants themselves, it also affects the host countries that receive them and the sending countries they leave behind. Thus, the challenges of migration require innovative solutions that turn these challenges into opportunities.
Summary of the 2025 Graduate Institute Geneva Challenge
- Type: Contest
- Country to study: Switzerland
- Sponsor: Graduate Institute of Geneva
- Eligible Countries: All
- Benefits: 25,000CHF monetary prizes, Invitation to come to Geneva for an oral presentation, Travel expenses, Accommodation
- Deadline: April 30, 2025
Five prizes will be distributed; one in each of the following categories (based on the UN Statistics list):
- Universities located in Africa
- Universities located in Asia
- Universities located in Europe
- Universities located in North America and Oceania
- Universities located in Latin America
Eligibility Criterias for the 2025 Graduate Institute Geneva Challenge
- Participants of the ADG contest 2025 must be enrolled as graduate students at the time of their registration for the contest.
- Participants must gather in teams of 3 (three) to 5 (five) graduate students. In the submitted analysis, they should contribute with an interdisciplinary approach or from at least 2 (two) different disciplinary perspectives.
- All team members must provide a scanned copy of a document that serves as proof of enrolment as a graduate student before the registration of the team can be confirmed and validated.
Benefits of the 2025 Graduate Institute Geneva Challenge
- The ADG contest distributes 25,000 CHF in monetary prizes.
- The winning project will be awarded CHF 10,000; the two teams in second place will receive CHF 5,000 each and the two teams in third place, CHF 2,500 each.
- All members of the 5 finalist teams will be invited to come to Geneva for an oral presentation where they will defend their proposals and answer questions from the Jury and from the public.
- Travel expenses such as flights, visa requests and accommodation are covered by the organisation of the contest for this purpose.
Deadline: April 30, 2025
Also Apply;
Indo-Pacific Futures Fellowship 2025 in USA & New Zealand
KàdàràBrite Scholarship Program 2025 for Ghanaian and Nigerian
