Opportunity announcement: HMG Scholarships Alumni Climate Change Hackathon
In Autumn 2021 (27 Sep – 8 Oct), the Chevening, CSC and Marshall scholarship programmes will bring their global alumni together to develop innovative solutions to some of the most pressing global challenges our planet faces in a climate-focussed policy hackathon.
What is a policy hackathon?
Policy hackathons bring together groups of people with a diverse range of views, experiences and expertise to identify and develop policy solutions to a particular issue. Hackathons typically take place over a short and concentrated period of time to allow for focussed working on particularly tricky challenges.
How will it work?
Alumni from across the three scholarships will form teams by country or region and work in their teams over the course of two weeks (27 Sep – 8 Oct) to develop inventive and original policy proposals aimed at addressing the challenges presented by climate change.
Each climate hackathon team will develop an innovative solution to address a climate-related issue which supports one of the COP26 Goals.
Teams will present their proposals to a panel of expert judges who will select a winning team for each COP26 Goal. Finalists will then present at a final event and the overall winning team will be selected to present at an event coinciding with COP26 to a select audience.
Why take part?
This is an exciting opportunity for you to get involved in an activity which will bring together scholarship alumni at a national and transnational level to discuss and identify the most prevalent climate change issues in your home country or region and globally.
You will be able to network and learn from world-leading experts from across the UK government’s scholarship schemes and develop your own thinking and expertise.
The scholarship schemes will be publishing and promoting all the proposals developed during the hackathon, so this is also an opportunity to showcase your expertise to a large global audience.
Am I eligible to take part and what do I need to do?
If you are currently an Alumnus/Alumna of Chevening, CSC or Marshall or will be in September 2021, or if you will have completed more than 50% of your award by then, you can apply to take part.
If you would like to take part, you will need to submit a simple application form. Applications will open on 5 July, and the link to apply will be published on this page. Ahead of applications opening, you could start to build a team from your country or region, and with members from across the three HMG scholarship schemes. You can apply as a team or as an individual. If you apply as an individual we will assign you to a team. If you apply as a team, you will need to select a team leader.