An annual $100,000 prize program to support the development and implementation of a solution that has significant potential to solve humanity’s most pressing problems

The world financial system is in chaos; vital ecosystems are under stress; climate change and its consequences are daily news; and the bare essentials of human life - food, water, and shelter - remain out of reach for billions of people.

Challenges of this magnitude require bold, visionary strategies; they require what Buckminster Fuller called “a design revolution.” Great stand-alone solutions - pieces of a larger puzzle - are out there, but it will take more than an innovative gadget or isolated technological breakthrough to tackle the problems of a complex and interconnected world.

“We’re looking for comprehensive anticipatory design solutions that address multiple problems without creating new ones down the road - integrated strategies dealing with key social, economic, environmental, and cultural issues,” explains Elizabeth Thompson, Executive Director of the Buckminster Fuller Institute.

As stated in this year’s call for entries, these design strategies “must present a bold, visionary, tangible initiative that is focused on a well-defined need of critical importance. They should be regionally specific yet globally applicable, and backed up by a solid plan and the capability to move the solution forward.”

» Download the 2009 call for entries [pdf 2.2mb]

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