Big Ideas is not just big in aspiration, it’s big in social and entrepreneurial impact. Since 2006, the Contest—open to undergraduate and graduate students at all 10 UC campuses—has kickstarted 2,000 early stage ventures and funded nearly 500 organizations, with teams going on to leverage an additional $650 million in funding in the areas of global health, workforce development, energy and resource alternatives, art and social change, food systems, connected communities, and more.

By 2050, more than two-thirds of the world’s population will live in urban areas, with 40 percent of this growth occurring in slums. One critical development challenge is the lack of adequate sewer systems--currently, one in every five city dwellers lacks access to

To celebrate UC Berkeley’s 150th anniversary, the Blum Center for Developing Economies created an interactive graphic showcasing 150 Big Ideas winners. Big Ideas is the Blum Center’s annual student innovation contest, which since 2006 has provided funding, support, and mentoring to over 6,000 students seeking to have real-world impact in the areas of clean energy, global health and food security, among other global challenges.

An injured soldier is rushed to a field hospital and is bleeding out. A surgeon needs to give the soldier meds to speed up her clotting. But too much or too little will kill her. The doctors rely on lab equipment to determine dosage; however, the large machine was never

Breslauer is a 2007 Big Ideas alumni who won awards for ‘Biologically Inspired Microfluidic Silk Spinning’ device and CellScope.

In February 2018, Big Ideas Contest Director, Phillip Denny, traveled to Kampala, Uganda to explore opportunities for Big Ideas expansion in Africa, in partnership with Makerere University. Makerere—one of Africa’s leading institutions of higher education—has been a key partner of Big Ideas since