Deadline: March 31, 2025 (Students) / April 9, 2025 (Startups)
Applications are open for the International Telecommunication Union (ITU) 1st UN Citiverse Challenge 2025. The 1st UN Citiverse Challenge invites students and startups to reimagine and design innovative solutions that leverage the transformative potential of the citiverse and digital public infrastructure to address pressing global challenges. By focusing on three critical themes—access to public services, sustainability and resilience, and tourism and digital culture—participants will develop bold ideas and prototypes to shape the cities of tomorrow.
The UN Citiverse Challenge is directly aligned with the vision of the Pact for the Future and the principles of the Global Digital Compact (GDC), emphasizing inclusive, sustainable, and equitable approaches to digital transformation. Participants have the opportunity to lead the way in advancing the GDC’s goals by exploring how cutting-edge technologies can foster a more connected and resilient world. This challenge champions a transformative approach to urban innovation, harnessing digital public infrastructure alongside technologies such as AI, metaverse, digital twins, and open-source solutions to reimagine cities as inclusive, resilient, and sustainable hubs of progress.
This challenge is a call to action for visionaries, innovators, and changemakers to collaborate in building an equitable and sustainable digital future. Join the 1st UN Citiverse Challenge and help redefine the digital public infrastructure of future cities in alignment with global priorities outlined in the Pact for the Future and the Global Digital Compact.
Prizes
Exciting prizes await the most innovative and impactful solutions! The winning individual or team will receive recognition for their creativity and ingenuity and also receive a cash prize.
- Students Category: CHF 5,000 for the winning team or individual.
- Startups Category: CHF 5,000 for the most scalable and impactful solution.
Eligibility
- Category 1: Students: Open to graduate-level students or recent graduates, individually or in teams, to propose innovative ideas or prototypes addressing real-world challenges in the citiverse.
- Category 2: Startups: Open to startups. Startups are required to submit cutting-edge prototypes or scalable solutions leveraging AI, metaverse, gaussian splatting, digital twins, and open-source tools.
Participation is free of charge, making this a unique opportunity to collaborate and innovate without barriers.
Application
- Step 1: Create an account or Login here.
- Step 2: Select “Citiverse: Designing Digital Public Infrastructure of Future Cities” as your problem statement to work on.
- Step 3: Create a team under the chosen problem statement (Citiverse: Designing Digital Public Infrastructure of Future Cities).
- Step 4: After its creation, admin will review and approve the team, confirming your successful registration for the UN Citiverse Challenge.
- Step 5: Team members can then request to join the team, and it is the team leader’s role to approve these requests to join the team.
For more information, visit 1st UN Citiverse Challenge.
