We are Winners!

The Grand Challenges team are the winners of a Collaborative Award for Teaching Excellence.

Strategy 2030

Image of the university of Exeter

By completing Grand Challenges, students contribute to our Strategy 2030 goals.

Grand Challenges 2-6 June 2025

Grand Challenges is now closed for this year. To register your interest in Grand Challenges 2025, please complete this form.

Grand Challenges is a project week in which you work in interdisciplinary groups with other like-minded students to design innovative solutions to real world challenges. Top academics and invited speakers share their views and help you apply your skills and knowledge to a real-life problem. You have the opportunity to develop your transferable skills including team work, presentation skills and project planning.  Read more.

This opportunity is open to current Grand Challenges undergraduate students but postgraduate students can apply to be facilitators. 

Sustainable Development Goals

All of our Challenges topics link to the UN's 17 Sustainable Development Goals.

Future Food
Mental Health
Social Inequality
Tomorrow's World
Complex Global Security
Benefits of Grand Challenges

With Grand Challenges you can meet like-minded people, develop a wide range of transferable skills, gain an understanding of global issues and have the potential to make a real impact.

GreenComp

Grand Challenges helps students to develop their sustainable thinking, self-awareness and experiential learning, in line with the GreenComp framework (The European sustainability competence framework).

Student testimonials

"I met so many new people and we quickly became friends through working together"

Showcase Video 2023

After presenting to their challenges in the morning, all 70 student groups across 5 challenges were given a space on Forum Street to showcase their outputs from the week.

Grand Challenges Week 2023 Montage Video

A collection of video clips from throughout Grand Challenges Week 2023 which saw students working on a variety of projects from podcasts to compost bins.