Overview

The SDG Innovation Accelerator for Young Professionals is an opportunity for United Nations Global Compact participating enterprises to empower young talent within their organizations to collaborate and accelerate business innovation toward the SDGs.

This nine-month program empowers future business leaders and change makers to create and drive creative solutions through new technology, initiatives, and business models while meeting their company’s sustainability goals.

The program brings together entry- to mid-level managers (aged 35 and under) from various business units to propose daring yet practical solutions that can benefit the firm and the SDGs.

Quick Details of UN Global Compact SDG Innovation Accelerator

• Application opens: October 2023
• Deadline: to be announced (Jan 2024)
• Organizer: United Nations Global Compact
• Duration: 9 months (Late January 2024-September 2024)
• SDG Innovation Summit: September 2024

The objective of each team of young innovators is to develop more sustainable business models, initiatives, and products that will improve the company’s sustainability efforts while fostering innovation and producing concrete solutions with potential commercial value over the course of nine months.

Program Phases:

By concentrating on the SDGs, the Accelerator guides participants through an innovative design thinking process. With resources, tools, and processes at their disposal to help them through the steps of recognizing a challenge, designing and testing solutions, and validating these solutions for business value and SDG effect, participants move through each of the program’s five phases listed below.

• Phase 1: SDG Exploration: Explore the fundamental concepts of business and the Sustainable Development Goals to better understand the issues that businesses face today.
• Phase 2: Identification: Identify and prioritize certain SDGs, as well as their relevance for your business and the SDGs’ influence on your firm.
• Phase 3: Challenge Definition: Learn how to use SDG impact and assessment tools to create a challenge that is bold enough to have a breakthrough impact while also speaking to real needs inside their organization.
• Phase 4: Solutions Development: Learn how to generate fresh ideas and how to use tools to transform a notion into a fully specified project.
• Phase 5: Solutions Testing & Validation: Testing and validation within the firm and with external stakeholders will help you develop your project solution.

Program Benefits:

Participants Benefits:

• Learning and development resources and opportunities, including thorough curriculum with a combination of learning opportunities including online and in-person workshops, case studies, company visits, and forum talks.
• Professional experience. Network with other business units and collaborate on state-of-the-art projects relative to the company and industry.
• Coaching, mentoring, and colleague-to-colleague networking opportunities with some of the brightest minds working on sustainability and innovation from across the world.
• Be part of a global network of prominent young professionals from some of the top companies across every continent.

Company Benefits:

• Use SDG innovation to address real-world sustainability issues that your organization is facing.
• Through collaboration, innovation, and information sharing, incorporate the SDGs into your company’s business plan.
• Increase staff involvement and chances for professional development.
• Use an expert network of leading specialists from some of the world’s most prestigious firms.
• Gain international recognition for your involvement in the program.

Eligibility:

• 35-year-old or younger high-performing employees at a UN Global Compact participant company engaged in business model innovation, sustainability, and disruptive technologies
• Companies that are members of the aforementioned Global Compact Local Networks may apply.
• Young professionals working for UN Global Compact firms can now form a team of up to four persons and nominate themselves for the Accelerator using the self-nomination link below.

Eligible Companies:

Companies must be situated in one of the following countries to be eligible: Azerbaijan, Bangladesh, Brazil, Ecuador, Georgia, Indonesia, Malaysia & Brunei, Mexico, Norway, South Africa, Sri Lanka, Switzerland & Liechtenstein, Turkiye, United Arab Emirates, United Kingdom, United States.

Furthermore, the eligible company employees should meet these criteria:

• Successful and high-achieving employees at a participating company of the UN Global Compact
• 35 years or younger
• Passion for business model innovation, sustainability, and disruptive technologies
• Lastly, companies must have confirmation to take part in the program before nominating individual young professionals to join because of high demand and limited spots.

How to Apply?

Interested and eligible young professionals can apply through the links below.

Apply as Companies 

Self Nomination

For more details about the UN Global Compact SDG Innovation Accelerator for Young Professionals, visit the UN Global Compact’s  website.

You may also be eligible for these opportunities:

• Mahindra Humanities Center Postdoctoral Fellowship at Harvard University in USA
• Free Online Course on ‘Sustainable Cities’ by SDG Academy
• Draper Hills Summer Fellows Program at Stanford University
• Chinese Government Scholarship at Tsinghua University 2023
• Cell Biology Mitochondria Free Online Course by Harvard University