World Solve

Map and mitigate heavy metals, flame retardants, acids, and other pollutants leaching from informal electronics-processing sites into drinking-water aquifers.

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

Develop economically viable integrated pest-management alternatives for small growers who rely on highly toxic chemicals because safer options are inaccessible or ineffective.

Develop accessible monitoring for silica dust exposure and early lung damage among artisanal miners and construction workers who lack occupational health coverage.

Develop surveillance and affordable safety protocols for dialysis delivered in fragmented private and informal systems, where contamination and equipment reuse may go undocumented.

Create field-deployable chemical verification methods that pharmacies, regulators, and patients can use to distinguish authentic cancer drugs from counterfeit or degraded products.

Registering a new business in Germany often requires navigating multiple disconnected agencies with redundant paperwork, discouraging formalization of small enterprises.

Current approaches to pathways for achieving high levels of circularity in the plastics and packaging sectors either underperform under variable field conditions or generate externalities that undermine long-term sustainability and equity. Closing the gap requires coordinated advances in science, systems design and enabling institutions.

The absence of robust, context-adapted solutions for institutional designs that make long-term infrastructure investment politically durable creates cascading risks across interconnected human and natural systems. Key missing elements include durable performance, low lifetime cost, and governance arrangements capable of sustaining impact beyond pilot stages.

The absence of robust, context-adapted solutions for nature-based solutions for urban stormwater that also enhance biodiversity and amenity creates cascading risks across interconnected human and natural systems. Key missing elements include durable performance, low lifetime cost, and governance arrangements capable of sustaining impact beyond pilot stages.

Despite recognition of its importance, reliable methods for passive cooling and ventilation systems for informal settlement housing are still lacking. Progress is hindered by incomplete mechanistic knowledge, high capital and operational barriers, and the absence of deployment models suited to the contexts of greatest need.

Informal-sector workers in Yemen are largely excluded from formal credit because they lack the documented income history traditional lenders require, forcing reliance on high-interest informal lenders.

The absence of robust, context-adapted solutions for therapeutics and care models that improve outcomes for people living with multimorbidity creates cascading risks across interconnected human and natural systems. Key missing elements include durable performance, low lifetime cost, and governance arrangements capable of sustaining impact beyond pilot stages.

The absence of robust, context-adapted solutions for circular nutrient management systems closing phosphorus loops at regional scale creates cascading risks across interconnected human and natural systems. Key missing elements include durable performance, low lifetime cost, and governance arrangements capable of sustaining impact beyond pilot stages.

The absence of robust, context-adapted solutions for autonomous microgravity assembly of large habitats and infrastructure creates cascading risks across interconnected human and natural systems. Key missing elements include durable performance, low lifetime cost, and governance arrangements capable of sustaining impact beyond pilot stages.

Current approaches to higher-order assessments valid under unrestricted AI tool access either underperform under variable field conditions or generate externalities that undermine long-term sustainability and equity. Closing the gap requires coordinated advances in science, systems design and enabling institutions.

Current approaches to methods for assessing the resilience of critical infrastructure to compound climate and cyber risks either underperform under variable field conditions or generate externalities that undermine long-term sustainability and equity. Closing the gap requires coordinated advances in science, systems design and enabling institutions.

The absence of robust, context-adapted solutions for governance models for ensuring the safety of advanced autonomous weapons systems creates cascading risks across interconnected human and natural systems. Key missing elements include durable performance, low lifetime cost, and governance arrangements capable of sustaining impact beyond pilot stages.

The absence of robust, context-adapted solutions for education systems that prepare students to navigate and shape the future of work with AI creates cascading risks across interconnected human and natural systems. Key missing elements include durable performance, low lifetime cost, and governance arrangements capable of sustaining impact beyond pilot stages.

Achieving privacy-preserving detection of coordinated platform influence operations 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.