Tangent has announced that it will be running the annual Provost’s Innovation Challenge on the theme of “student accommodation”. The challenge aims to get students involved in developing solutions to major social issues.
The theme was decided following a public vote in which people voted on a number of topics selected by Provost Linda Doyle.
The challenge will be run from February 10th-12th during which time students will work together to develop a solution to the student accommodation crisis. There is a €1,000 prize for the winning solution.
Previous years have focused on a variety of themes, with last year’s being focused on sustainable fashion. The programme has also seen the launch of businesses such as Foodcloud, which is designed to help businesses redistribute surplus food to those who need it.
In a press release announcing the challenge, a spokesperson for Tangent said: “We know students want to make a positive impact on society, and the world around them, and that’s what the Provost’s Challenge is all about”.
“Trinity has a long-standing commitment to social innovation, which is crucial to addressing some of the most pressing issues facing society today, and to preventing global crises of the future”, they continued.
“The Provost’s Innovation Challenge provides a fun and creative environment for teams of students to work on solutions to real-world problems. This is also a great opportunity to meet new people and students from different schools and faculties.”
In a video discussing the 2021 Provost’s Innovation Challenge, Gavan Drohan, head of student entrepreneurship at Tangent, said: “It’s always amazing to see the variety of the projects, and I love seeing that the passion is there to continue to work through the academic year”.
“That’s part of the function of Tangent – we have a number of different supports for whatever pathway they want to go through or whatever time they have available.”
Doyle also commented on the challenge: “The Provost’s Challenge is all about empowering students to look at the world and think in terms of solutions to global and societal problems”, she said.
Speaking on her experiences with the Provost’s challenge, Ellen Ryall, one of the 2020 winners, said: “After we won the Provost’s challenge, we went on to enter a couple more competitions and accelerator programs, we got into LaunchBox and we entered [the] Blackstone Fellowship, an accelerator in the US”.
