125 varsities come forward to address COVID-19

Imran Mojib, Special Correspondent

A year-round social impact innovation programme for graduate students across the world, Global Grad Show, an initiative by the Art Dubai Group, has received entries from 125 universities in 40 countries during the application phase of its initiative addressing the collateral issues of the Covid-19 pandemic.

Held in partnership with Investment Corporation of Dubai (ICD), and supported by A.R.M. Holding and Dubai Culture & Arts Authority, it was created as a response to the Coronavirus outbreak. The Covid-19 open call invited Global Grad Show’s community of over 260 universities to put forward solutions to the escalating challenges faced by people, communities and governments across the world and the initiative received 390 applications between March 16 and April 2, 2020.

Applications were evaluated by a jury of senior representatives from 4 leading private and public organisations in Dubai - ICD, A.R.M. Holding, Wamda and the Art Dubai Group, whose inputs will inform the next assessment phase.

For the next phase, Global Grad Show will engage with the students and professors behind these applications to analyse their development requirements, with a view to identify proposals that can be supported towards testing and implementation. The creator(s) of any selected proposal will be awarded the tuition fee of their current studies, or equivalent scholarship for the department of selected professor(s) along with support for concept development and business building.

The proposals engaged disciplines varying from medical engineering to game design and focused on problems with different degrees of urgency, and on solutions with varying implementation complexity and horizon: from critical medical PPE currently out of stock around the world to public policies to prepare communities for future disease outbreaks.

Students and professors from Institutions belonging to the global top-10 rank, such as MIT, Harvard University, University of Oxford, Imperial College London and National University of Singapore applied, alongside institutions in the UAE including Middlesex University Dubai, AUS, INSEAD and NYU Abu Dhabi and in emerging markets such as Peru, Uganda, Egypt, Turkey, Lithuania and Malaysia. Graduates from the world’s top 4 design schools - Royal College of Art, University of the Arts London, Parsons School of Design and Rhode Island School of Design - also responded to the open call, reflecting Global Grad Show’s strong connection with leading design institutions globally.