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Universities for Goal 13 Past Editions

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The Universities for Goal 13 Competition was launched in 2021 in collaboration with Siemens Gamesa, a world leader in renewable energy. Throughout its first three editions, the competition has engaged leading academic institutions, fostering collaboration across fields to address the environmental, social, and economic aspects of sustainable development.

The Universities for Goal 13 Competition was launched in 2021 in collaboration with Siemens Gamesa, a world leader in renewable energy. This initiative has gathered university students from around the world to propose innovative, multidisciplinary solutions to combat climate change, with a focus on SDG 13: Climate Action.

Throughout its first three editions, the competition has engaged leading academic institutions, fostering collaboration across fields to address the environmental, social, and economic aspects of sustainable development. Each year, selected teams undergo several rounds of evaluation, with finalists presenting bold ideas aimed at transforming the global energy landscape. The competition has grown in scale and impact, highlighting student-led solutions from institutions in countries including Australia, Brazil, China, Germany, South Africa, United States and the UK. Learn more about the past editions below.

3rd Edition (2023)

Winner: ‘OG2OW: Recommissioning Oil & Gas Platforms to Offshore Wind Energy’ by students from PUC-Rio in Brazil (Member of SDSN Brazil)

For the third edition, students were challenged to propose solutions that addressed the environmental, social, and economic aspects on the deployment of renewable energy infrastructures. Selected SDSN member institutions were: Tsinghua University in China, the Chinese University of Hong Kong, the Pontifical Catholic University of Rio de Janeiro in Brazil, Case Western Reserve University in the U.S.A., Monash University in Australia and the University of Southampton in the UK. Read about the finalists' projects. The winner of the 2024 competition was announced on September 21, 2024.

2nd Edition (2022)

Winner: ‘E-Gora: The Energy Marketplace’ by students from Case Western Reserve University (Member of SDSN USA)

In the second edition, six universities from SDSN’s Network around the world were selected to participate: Tsinghua University, China jointly with the Chinese University of Hong Kong; the Nelson Mandela University, South Africa; University of Göttingen, Germany; the Pontifical Catholic University of Rio de Janeiro, Brazil; and Case Western Reserve University, United States. The winner of the 2023 competition was E-Gora: The Energy Marketplace by students from CWRU led by prof. Grant Goodrich.

1st edition (2021)

Winner: ‘Byte Rainforest: Valorization of Ecological Resources for Global Tropical Rainforests. An Integrated Solution Based on Blockchain’, by students from Tsinghua University (Member of the SDSN China Hub)

For the first edition, five institutions selected from SDSN’s network and 15 teams participated in the competition: the Institute for SDGs of Tsinghua University (host institution of SDSN China Hub), the University of Pretoria in South Africa (host of SDSN South Africa), the University of Göttingen in Germany, the Pontifical University of Rio de Janeiro in Brazil, and Arizona State University in the United States of America.