2025 SDG Summer School in Geneva
In 2025, the theme of the SDG Summer School in Geneva is Planetary Health, with a focus on gathering and analyzing data about the impact of climate change on human health.
This two-week summer school, focused on challenge-based innovation, is part of an SDG Olympiad happening at several Universities around the globe.
You can register for the SDG Summer School in Geneva on the Geneva Summer Schools website. The deadline for registration is 30 April 2025.
Motivation: The SDG Summer School in Geneva enables students to play an active role in tackling the SDGs, in close collaboration with mentors from UN agencies and other International Organizations in Geneva. The focus is on team-based problem solving using crowdsourcing methodologies and open data. Teams are formed by Bachelor and Master students selected from a wide range of backgrounds, coached by PhD students with specialist knowledge.
Testimony: the video below sums up the impact of the 2023 SDG Summer School in Geneva, in the words of its participants. This was one of five SDG Summer Schools held in July 2023, the others being in Bangkok, Lagos, Nairobi and Paris. The projects from each summer school are summarised in an SDGZine.
About SDG Summer School
The SDG Summer School in Geneva takes place in the SDG Solution Space, a student innovation hub managed by a team of student interns from the SDG Master Program with the help of staff from the University of Geneva School of Economics and Management (GSEM), the Centre Universitaire d’Informatique (CUI) and the Rectorate.
The space is situated in the heart of International Geneva, and is part of Campus Biotech Innovation Park, which hosts start-ups and NGOs dedicated to human and planetary health. The Institute of Global Health of the University of Geneva is just across the street from the SDG Solution Space, and contributes coaches to the SDG Summer School through its PhD program, where many PhDs are working in international organizations like WHO and the Global Fund.
Neighboring institutions include the World Meteorological Organization, The UN High Commission for Refugees and the World Trade Organization. Within a few minutes walk are dozens of other International Organizations and hundreds of NGOs. This unique location ensures close collaboration with mentors from a range of organizations that can provide challenges in the area of planetary health, based on their extensive field experience.
The hands-on team-based methodology promoted in the SDG Solution Space is inspired by concepts from Jean Piaget, a pioneer in pedagogical innovation at the University of Geneva and founder of the International Bureau of Education, the predecessor of UNESCO. Like Piaget, we encourage young people to embrace a challenge-based and solution-oriented mode of learning during the SDG Summer School.
SDG Summer School 2024 participants at the SDG Solution Space
SDG Summer School 2024 participants at the Confucius Institute
The SDG Summer School in Geneva has been constantly evolving since its inception in 2016. You can consult the pages dedicated to previous editions here: