World Solve

Future workers may combine employment, freelancing, caregiving, entrepreneurship, and AI-assisted production. Benefits must follow people across contracts without making innovation or small-business hiring impossible. The solution must work with limited capital, intermittent services, and local maintenance capacity. The research opportunity is to define measurable success criteria, test the approach in realistic settings, identify failure modes, and create a pathway from prototype to accountable deployment.

children working on farms remains one of the most urgent challenges of our time. Systems currently in place are inadequate for the scale and complexity of the problem. A successful approach must work where resources are scarcest and demonstrate clear, measurable results. It should identify possible harms, respect local agency, and show how the solution can be maintained and expanded by the communities it is meant to serve.

Future progress on human development and planetary health depends on solving children working in dangerous mines. Conventional approaches have proven insufficient. The required intervention must integrate community knowledge, data and appropriate technology while remaining affordable, privacy-preserving and operable with minimal external support. Strong solutions will articulate measurable impact metrics, risk mitigation strategies, and a plan for sustained operation by local actors after the pilot phase.

Future progress on human development and planetary health depends on solving delivery workers working extremely long hours. Conventional approaches have proven insufficient. The required intervention must integrate community knowledge, data and appropriate technology while remaining affordable, privacy-preserving and operable with minimal external support. Strong solutions will articulate measurable impact metrics, risk mitigation strategies, and a plan for sustained operation by local actors after the pilot phase.

The problem of working mothers left without support continues to affect hundreds of millions of people and undermines progress on multiple Sustainable Development Goals. Existing responses remain fragmented, under-resourced and poorly adapted to local contexts. A strong solution must operate effectively under severe constraints of skilled personnel, infrastructure, electricity and connectivity. It should define clear measurable outcomes, identify possible unintended harms, and demonstrate how the intervention can be sustained by local institutions long after initial funding ends.

Many countries will need to support more older people with fewer workers and uncertain productivity gains. The challenge is redesigning pensions, care, migration, housing, and employment without increasing generational conflict. The solution must work with limited capital, intermittent services, and local maintenance capacity. The research opportunity is to define measurable success criteria, test the approach in realistic settings, identify failure modes, and create a pathway from prototype to accountable deployment.

Addressing unsafe and hazardous working conditions is critical for achieving the 2030 Agenda. Current efforts fall short in scale, speed and equity, leaving the most vulnerable behind. Any viable solution must function in low-resource settings with limited specialists, transport, laboratory capacity and broadband. Proposals should specify quantifiable biological, social or environmental outcomes, openly discuss potential risks, and present a realistic pathway for long-term maintenance and local ownership beyond short research pilots.

Future quantum networks will need coexistence with conventional fiber, satellites, and noisy metropolitan infrastructure. A major unresolved problem is developing practical repeaters, interfaces, standards, and operational security for real-world deployment. The solution must work with limited capital, intermittent services, and local maintenance capacity. The research opportunity is to define measurable success criteria, test the approach in realistic settings, identify failure modes, and create a pathway from prototype to accountable deployment.

Good firms can be rejected because financial statements lag reality or assets are hard to pledge. Cash-flow inference, purchase-order verification, and risk-sharing products could widen credit while limiting fraud and over-borrowing. The opportunity is intentionally human-scale: a cooperative, clinic, workshop, school, or municipal team could pilot it within one locality and measure outcomes before expanding. Mathematical modeling can help with measure uncertainty, incentives, or resource constraints; entrepreneurship can turn a reliable workflow into a viable service.

Pension and healthcare costs rise as the working-age population shrinks, forcing reforms in labour markets and social protection. Modelling tools and policy pilots for sustainable welfare redesign are needed.

Pension and healthcare costs rise as the working-age population shrinks, forcing reforms in labour markets and social protection. Modelling tools and policy pilots for sustainable welfare redesign are needed.

Diabetic retinopathy remains a leading cause of blindness among working-age adults, and while treatment can slow progression, prevention before damage begins remains incomplete. Earlier, more effective prevention could protect vision for millions of diabetics.

Patients often go through months of chemotherapy or other treatments before doctors learn whether it's actually working for their specific cancer. Better predictive tools could spare patients ineffective treatment and its side effects.

Many public programs continue for years based on assumption rather than evidence that they're working, because rigorous evaluation is neither required nor prioritized. Better built-in evaluation could redirect resources toward what actually helps.

High childcare costs push many parents, disproportionately mothers, out of the workforce entirely or into reduced hours. Making quality childcare broadly affordable remains an unresolved economic and social policy gap.

Solar storms and radiation slowly degrade satellite electronics, shortening their working life and risking sudden failures. Better shielding could extend satellite lifespans and reduce costly replacements.

Many geometric constants have been linked to constants like pi through elegant proofs, but numerous others remain isolated without any confirmed deeper connection. This unresolved gap continues to intrigue mathematicians working in geometry and analysis.

Networking equipment can potentially be intercepted and secretly modified during shipping before it ever reaches its intended destination, creating hidden long-term security risks. Building tamper-evident supply chains for this hardware remains incompletely adopted.

Fraudulent platforms mimicking legitimate academic networking sites could collect sensitive researcher information under false pretenses. Verifying platform legitimacy before widespread academic adoption remains an unresolved trust issue.

Fewer working-age people are supporting more retirees in many countries, straining pension systems built for a different population balance. Without reform, current retirement systems risk running out of money for future retirees.