Deadline: August 8, 2017

Are you an undergraduate student passionate about the environment? Enter the New Zealand-India Sustainability Challenge for a chance to win an internship at New Zealand universities. You could be working with other students from India and New Zealand to come up with your own sustainable solution to an environmental or social problem.

Students from the winning team win a three-week all expense paid internship at prestigious universities in New Zealand. The internship will include classroom lectures, industry engagement and the chance to collaborate with New Zealand undergraduate students. You’ll also have the opportunity to explore New Zealand.

Theme

Find an environmental or social problem on your campus or the surrounding community, and work with your team to find an innovative sustainable practice to solve it.

Base your project on one of these themes:

• Access to clean drinking water
• Sustainable consumption
• Multicultural/inter-faith sustainability
• Environmental education
• Sustainable lifestyle
• Waste management
• Agriculture

Your team will be judged on how innovative, feasible and scalable your sustainable solution is.

Awards

• Six shortlisted teams – each consisting of two students and a faculty mentor – will be chosen to take part in the finale.
• The six teams will collaborate with students from New Zealand universities to find an innovative solution to a sustainability issue of their choosing. They will also visit a sustainability facility as an incentive.
• The winning team will win a trip to visit three New Zealand universities, interning at each of the universities for a week. The faculty member on the winning team will be able to observe the sessions.
• The Challenge is an opportunity for Indian institutions to partner with New Zealand universities and explore the New Zealand way of teaching and learning.
• There will also be prizes for regional and finale runners-up.

Eligibility

• You can apply for the Challenge if you’re an undergraduate student aged 18-22 from recognised colleges, universities or institutes in Tamil Nadu, Karnataka, Maharashtra or Delhi NCR.
• Your team should be made up of two students and a faculty mentor from your college, university or institution.
• The competition encourages students from across different areas  – science, technical, economic, social, cultural, environmental and agriculture – to work together.
•  You should hold a valid passport, with a validity period of at least six months from Feb/March 2018.

How to Register

• Form a team of two students and a faculty mentor from your institution to mentor your team.
• Choose a theme and identify a sustainability issue from your campus or the surrounding community.
• Register your team name and submit your proposal by 8 August 2017.

Important Dates

• Entries close: 8 August 2017
• Announcement of teams shortlisted for regional rounds: 16-21 August 2017
• Regional rounds for selecting six Indian finalist teams: September 2017
• Nominations for New Zealand students’ participation: 1-15 September 2017
• New Zealand competition participants in India: 25 November- 9 December 2017
• Finale in Bengaluru: 8 December 2017
• Winners to intern in New Zealand: Feb/March 2018

For more information, visit New Zealand-India  Sustainability Challenge.