RFAs: Indigenous Communities Fellowship 2025 (US and Canada)

Objectives

• Strengthen sustainable energy sovereignty and support climate resilience initiatives by and for Indigenous peoples.
• Develop tools to promote Indigenous sovereignty, including the ethical use of AI and data technologies, culturally aligned digital infrastructure, or access to economic opportunity.
• Drive positive outcomes for Indigenous learners of any age and context through culturally grounded educational opportunities.

Categories

• MIT Solve – Solver Award: All Solver teams selected for Solve’s Global Challenges and the Indigenous Communities Fellowship will receive a grant funded by Solve.
• The Seeding The Future Food Systems Prize: The Seeding the Future Food Systems Prize is open to high impact innovations focusing on transforming food systems to be more sustainable, and to enable equitable access to safe and nutritious food that is affordable and trusted.
• The E Ink Innovation Prize: The E Ink Innovation Prize is open to solutions that currently utilize or propose to utilize ePaper materials, technology, or displays to address problems of global importance in any of Solve’s areas of impact, including topics such as architecture, education, or intercultural understanding.
• The AI for Humanity Prize: The AI for Humanity Prize is open to solutions leveraging data science, artificial intelligence, and/or machine learning to benefit humanity.
• The GM Prize: The GM Prize is open to solutions that help create smart, safe, and sustainable communities around the world.
• The Citizens Workforce Innovation Prize: The Citizens Workforce Innovation Prize seeks to accelerate the development of solutions that will prepare people for today’s opportunities and the workplace of the future, advance new ways of working, and drive economic impact within communities.

Benefits

• Tailored capacity-building workshops covering marketing, public relations, monitoring and evaluation, business model, and more;
• Leadership coaching;
• Access to in-kind and pro bono resources such as software licenses and legal services;
• Monitoring and evaluation support to build an impact measurement practice;
• A powerful network of impact-minded leaders across industries and sectors, including MIT, with dedicated spaces to meet year-round;
• Attendance at two flagship events in New York City in September and Cambridge in May;
• Exposure in the media and speaking opportunities at conferences;
• Connections with past Solver teams for peer-to-peer support, inspiration, and guidance.

Prize Information

• MIT Solve – Solver Award: $10,000
• The Seeding The Future Food Systems Prize: up to $150,000
• The E Ink Innovation Prize: up to $100,000
• The AI for Humanity Prize: up to $150,000
• The GM Prize: up to $150,000
• The Citizens Workforce Innovation Prize: up to $100,000

Duration

• Selected Solver teams should expect to commit 25 hours to the program over the course of nine months, inclusive of coaching sessions, workshops, virtual events, etc. Additionally, attendance to MIT Solve flagship events is usually four days for Solve Challenge Finals in New York City (September) and four days for Solve at MIT in Cambridge (May).

Eligibility Criteria

• Solve seeks innovative, human-centered, tech-based solutions to their Global Challenges. Through open innovation, Solve is looking for a diverse portfolio of solutions across geography, development stage, and team members’ gender and background. They encourage people of all backgrounds to submit applications.

For more information, visit Solve.