From idea to the world stage.
The Ericsson Sustainability Challenge follows Hack for Earth's Dream! Hack! Build! method — here's the journey, step by step.
Register your team
Registration is free and open to students and young innovators across the Gulf who are 18+ and of legal adult age in their home country. Teams have 1–10 members — register solo and grow your team later, membership can change until final submission.
Pick your challenge
Choose one of the three challenge categories — AI for Impact, Connected Planet or Connected People — or register first and decide during the Dream phase, where the community's visions shape the hackathon.
Hack — 2–5 November 2026
Four days, fully online. Build your solution with support from Ericsson mentors and partners, workshops and check-ins along the way.
Submit your solution
Before the deadline, your team submits a pitch deck (PowerPoint or similar) and a video of your team presenting it, maximum 3 minutes. That's what the jury sees.
The jury decides
A jury of high-level executives from Hack for Earth and Ericsson evaluates every submission against five published criteria, with a live-streamed finale.
Read the jury criteria →Win — and keep building
The winning team in each category gets the opportunity to present at the Ericsson Sustainability Award Ceremony at GITEX Global in December 2026, and a spot in Build for Earth, our six-month global accelerator, from January to June 2027.
What makes a valid solution.
It tackles one of the three challenges
Your solution addresses AI for Impact, Connected Planet or Connected People, and contributes to the UN Sustainable Development Goals.
It can take many forms
A solution can look many ways. Most are digital — apps, tools or solutions using hardware — but others are conceptual: a new collaboration, a new business model. All are accepted. Just remember to read and re-read the jury criteria — everything is judged by them.
It's your team's own work
The solution is created by your team and doesn't infringe third-party rights. You may build on an earlier idea, but the work you submit is your own.
It doesn't need to be finished
A prototype is great, but a well-described concept is a valid submission. What matters is a credible path forward — the jury asks whether a minimum viable product could exist within 3 months and a proof of concept within 6.
The submission is a presentation
You will upload one PowerPoint (or similar) and a video of your team presenting your solution. The video can be a maximum of 3 minutes — keep this in mind.
One team, one submission
Each team submits one solution, and each person competes in one team only.
The fine print — eligibility, intellectual property and prizes — lives in the Terms & Conditions. Short version: your team keeps full ownership of everything you build.