Charities invited to take part in OU’s Open Societal Challenges Programme
Melanie May | 22 January 2024 | News
The Open University has launched its Open Societal Challenges Programme, Challenge Us! – a competition that aims to tackle societal challenges by finding the most exciting research ideas tackling real-world problems.
The Programme’s focus is on the themes of Tackling Inequalities, Living Well, and Sustainability, which aligns with the OU’s mission to be open to people, places, methods, and ideas.
Challenge Us! will run from 1 March to 15 May 2024, and will be open to OU students and recent graduates, all UK charities, and businesses based in Milton Keynes. The OU will select at least one winner per stream, and will announce the winners by October 2024.
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Charity submissions must be related to their central mission.
Winning Challenges will receive a baseline of £25,000 in research funding as Open Societal Challenges and winners will be invited to co-design the specifics of the research project with the research team. Winners will also receive a paid internship with the research team.
In selecting the winners, the OU will be looking for entries where the expertise of OU researchers can make a difference. Specifically, it will be looking to put together research teams to take on Challenges proposed by students, charities, and businesses over the summer months, with projects starting in autumn/winter 2024.
Entries can be made by visiting the website at Open Societal Challenges and filling in the online form. They are limited to one entry per charity.
To help charities and businesses, the OU is offering support in putting together entries – email societal-challenges at open.ac.uk to discuss.
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About Melanie May
Melanie May is a journalist and copywriter specialising in writing both for and about the charity and marketing services sectors since 2001. She can be reached via thepurplepim.com.