Overview
The Presidential Commission for the Fourth Industrial Revolution (‘The Presidential Commission’) would like to invite you to join the first of its 4IR 4U challenge. This initiative aims to encourage innovation, empower emerging entrepreneurs and inspire human-centric solutions. The Presidential Commission seeks to accelerate development in the digital ecosystem and to do so through challenges that solve the immediate needs of communities through technology.
What is the 4IR 4U Challenge?
In President Cyril Ramaphosa’s State of the Nation Address for 2019 the government set seven priorities which were:
- Economic transformation and job creation
- Education, skills and health
- Consolidating the social wage through reliable and quality basic services;
- Spatial integration, human settlements and local government;
- Social cohesion and safe communities;
- A capable, ethical and developmental state and
- A better Africa and World.
The 4IR 4U challenge is an incentivised challenge that rewards solutions. The prize money for the challenge is funded by an organisation that has defined the problem. Participants are encouraged to form teams that collaborate across functional capabilities to come up with ideas and develop impactful solutions with the aim of commercialising them for greater use.
Call for corporate sponsorship The Presidential Commission requests corporate sponsorships for challenges that will have an impact on the way society interacts with technology whilst solving the immediate needs in their communities. In addition to the issues stated by the President in his 2019 SONA, the challenges can be aimed at resolving specific socio-economic challenges ranging from digital literacy to climate change to gender-based violence.
Together with the Presidential Commission, your organisation will define the challenge and invite teams to compete to find impactful solutions that address the defined problem. The winning team will receive funding to enable them to build on their idea and eventually, to commercialise their solutions, in partnership with the funding organisation.
Why fund a 4IR 4U challenge?
The 4IR 4U challenge rewards solution-driven innovation. The challenge enables collaboration and encourages participants to create teams to compete while solving real-life problems. Organisations are requested to fund a defined challenge to incentivise innovation. The amount of funding is dependent on the specific problem that the organisation has identified. This competition is aimed at South Africans who are interested in taking up the challenge and finding sustainable and impactful solutions. Only the winning team will receive funding for their solution to enable them to develop their idea for commercial use. The funding organisation and the Presidential Commission will be involved in ensuring that the teams stay on track during the competition and that the winning team receives the appropriate support.