What's Your Big Idea?

Early-Stage Student-Led Social Innovation at UC Berkeley

More than a Contest

Big Ideas is an academic year-long program that provides training, networks, recognition and funding to interdisciplinary teams of UC Berkeley students who have who have creative solutions to pressing social challenges and real-world problems.

Big Ideas Impact

3500+
Proposals

10,000
Students

$1.2B
Additional Funding

50%
Registered Ventures

New FUNDING OpportunitIES

CALIFORNIA CLIMATE CHANGE SOLUTIONS

The CA Climate Action network is intended to spur innovative ideas to address California’s climate goals, ensure that local communities are prepared and resilient, and prevent future disasters. Student teams working on climate change solutions for vulnerable California communities are eligible to receive additional funding (up to $10K.)

FINTECH-EMPOWERED “BIG IDEAS”

The Lab for Inclusive FinTech (LIFT), in partnership with Big Ideas, has an exciting new funding opportunity for FinTech-empowered ideas to advance social change. Graduate or undergraduate students at UC Berkeley working on innovations to unlock the potential of digital financial technologies are eligible to receive additional funding (up to $5K.)

Latest News

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News from our Past Winners

FITE Film

Meet the team that taught film making in prisons

Ava

Ava lands $1.8M in seed funding to make group conversations accessible for deaf

Gram Power

Gram Power secures major Govt. contracts to set up solar panels in India

Tabla

Tabla wins the Big Ideas contest for their revolutionary medical testing device

Social Impact Tracks

Big Ideas encourages students to propose innovative solutions across a broad range of social impact tracks. 

FAQs

The team lead on the Big Ideas application must be a currently matriculated (degree seeking) UC Berkeley student. All projects should also be early-stage and demonstrate a clear social impact.

Teams are required to produce the following documents:

  1. Problem Statement
  2. Landscape Analysis
  3. Proposed Innovation
  4. Team Bios

Teams will be judged on the following criteria:

  1. Innovation
  2. Social Impact
  3. Long Term Viability
  4. Proposal Quality