World Solve

Create transition plans for towns dependent on coal jobs, tax revenue, rail infrastructure, and related industries as plants and mines close.

Develop modular panels, controllers, batteries, training, spare-parts supply, and warranties so off-grid solar systems remain functional beyond initial installation.

Create technologies and governance systems that reduce water use, waste, labor abuse, biodiversity loss, and geopolitical concentration in lithium, cobalt, nickel, and rare-earth supply.

Design safe, legal, affordable electricity systems where overloaded wiring, theft, insecure tenure, and weak utility trust create chronic fire and outage risks.

Create transparent testing, household behavior, public infrastructure, and maintenance strategies so families consistently access safe water rather than reverting to contaminated sources.

Design toilets, containment, emptying, transport, and treatment systems that function during floods without exposing residents or sanitation workers to waste.

Design repair financing, local spare-parts networks, remote diagnostics, and accountability models that keep water points functional after initial projects end.

Develop scalable methods to harvest, process, and use invasive water plants without spreading them further or introducing toxins into feed, compost, or consumer goods.

Develop surveillance and quarantine systems that work across informal nurseries, border markets, and online plant commerce where official controls are weak.

Establish evidence-based tools and public-health interventions for repeated smoke exposure, especially among children, older adults, and outdoor workers.

Build low-cost metagenomic and biosensor systems that identify emerging resistance genes in sewage networks early enough for hospitals and public-health agencies to alter treatment protocols.

Utilities and hospitals in Democratic Republic of Congo increasingly face ransomware attacks, but many operate on legacy systems without the budget or expertise to implement modern cybersecurity defenses.

Hospitals, schools, and water systems in seismically active parts of Morocco were largely built before modern earthquake codes, and retrofitting remains unfunded at scale.

Public transit systems in Australia largely lack infrastructure accommodating wheelchair users and other mobility-impaired riders, effectively excluding them from affordable transportation.

Public procurement processes in Nigeria lack standardized open-data reporting, making it difficult for civil society and auditors to detect overpricing, collusion, or misallocation of public funds.

Municipal waste collection in rapidly growing cities of Poland fails to reach large portions of the population, resulting in informal dumping and public health risks.

Rivers feeding into coastal waters near Democratic Republic of Congo carry substantial plastic waste from inland cities, and municipal waste management systems lack the capacity to intercept it before it reaches the ocean.

Achieving protocols for rapid, ethical and effective clinical research during public health emergencies at meaningful scale demands simultaneous progress in fundamental research, engineering integration and socio-technical systems that work for low- and middle-income settings. Existing efforts remain fragmented relative to the magnitude of the challenge.

A persistent gap exists in realizing practical, scalable solutions for institutional designs that increase public trust in scientific institutions and advice. Scientific understanding, engineering readiness and institutional capacity remain insufficient to translate promising concepts into durable impact under real-world constraints of cost, skills and governance.

A persistent gap exists in realizing practical, scalable solutions for design principles for digital public services that remain inclusive of low-literacy users. Scientific understanding, engineering readiness and institutional capacity remain insufficient to translate promising concepts into durable impact under real-world constraints of cost, skills and governance.