
The Call for Innovators for the Future aims to identify innovative projects that are making a positive social impact in the areas of Empowerment, Life, and Society, and to build a community of systems changemakers around the world. The submission period for the 2020 Call for Innovators has closed, with applications coming from 92 countries.
Visit the Call for Innovators page on The Futures Project’s main website to see the results of the Call, learn more about the applicants, and stay up to date with the Call for Innovators Community.
We seek to identify projects that help communities, building on our motto: innovation is the future delivered. You can nominate an initiative you know of, or self-nominate a project you’re affiliated with. We are especially interested in learning about work that may have gone unrecognized on the global stage, whether these initiatives are very recent or more established, provided they are relevant for today and the future.
These are the qualities that we look for in our innovators and their projects:
The Call for Innovators will select the semi-finalists inspiring and impactful projects and recognize them in as part of the UN75 Global Conversation project. These projects will be portrayed online in a digital yearbook as recognition of the Innovators’ work. Their work will be shared through The Futures Project’s network.
The Jury of Leaders will select the 2020 cohort of Innovators for the Future, who will join TFP's Social Impact Accelerator in spring 2021.
Register with us and fill out the pre-application form
The pre-application form acts as an eligibility check. We will accept expression of interest forms up to July 3rd and will inform you about selection or rejection as we screen the applications.
Call ends July 31st, 2020
Fill out the full application form by July 15th
Starts July 1st, 2020
Applications will be screened on a rolling basis based on a check for plagiarism and values-alignment with The Futures Project by TFP team.
Starts August 17, 2020
Each applications will be reviewed by a panel of 3-6 experts from academia, business, politics, arts and civil society. To the extent possible, applications will be reviewed by Expert Reviewers with knowledge or experience in the same domain as the applicant’s project. The selected semi-finalists inspiring and impactful projects will be recognized as part of the UN75 Global Conversation project. These projects will be portrayed online in a digital yearbook and shared widely through the Futures Project’s networks.
Starts October 5, 2020
Our international Jury of Leaders, comprised of CEOs, NGO directors, political leaders, impact fund managers, foundation executives, and leaders from other fields will select the finalists projects based on understanding of the problem, solution and the team behind the projects. The Jury will select the Finalists – TFP's Innovators for the Future 2020.
Dec 8 and 9, 2020
The Innovators for the Future 2020 will be invited to participate at TFP's virtual conference on December 8 and 9, 2020.
Spring 2021
The Finalists will be invited to participate in our highly-customised social impact accelerator programme in Spring 2021. Participants will regularly learn from and work with a broad range of partners and supporters from around the world to deepen and widen their impact.