St. Gallen Symposium launches Global Essay Competition

Compete in the Global Essay Competition and qualify for participation as a Leader of Tomorrow in the world’s premier opportunity for cross-generational debates: The St. Gallen Symposium.

Meet 300 of society’s brightest young minds. Present and debate your ideas with 600 senior leaders. Be inspired by some of the world’s most impressive speakers. Gain a unique and new perspective on this year’s topic. Become a member of a unique global community.

Topic Question

Striving for more or thriving with less – What pressing scarcity do you see, and how do you suggest to tackle it?

Scarcity generally refers to a situation where human needs exceed available resources. This year’s Global Essay Competition invites young leaders worldwide to focus on a specific contemporary or future challenge related to scarcity and propose an innovative way to address it.

Be creative in thinking about proposed solutions: do everyone need to strive for more and find ways to boost the availability of the resource in question? Or does it focus on ways to thrive with less and thus rethink the needs and demand?

Be free in choosing which scarce resource you focus on: examples include – but are NOT limited to – human labour, capital, natural resources, or intangibles like time, creativity, or care. Be bold and precise in describing a contemporary or future challenge of scarcity and the specific kind of resources you focus on, and offer a concrete and actionable idea of how everyone should confront it.

Benefits

• The award is endowed with a total prize money of CHF 20,000. In addition, there will be a chance for the very best competitors (including the awardees) to present their ideas on the big stage at the symposium.

Eligibility Criteria

• To be eligible, you must fulfill all of the following criteria:
  • Enrolled in a graduate or postgraduate programme (master level or higher) in any field of study at a regular university
  • Born in 1994 or later
• Make sure you can provide the following documents:
  • Copy of passport or other identification (in English for non-Roman languages)
  • Confirmation of matriculation/enrolment from your university which proves your enrollment in a graduate/postgraduate level programme as of 1 February 2024
  • Your contribution file with no indication of your name in the file name, the file metadata or the file itself.

For more information, visit St. Gallen Symposium.