Whether it’s economic, health, energy, diversity and everything in-between, the world is facing some grand challenges.

Those problems need solutions, so the University of Delaware’s First Step Grand Challenges is looking for talented, entrepreneurial, collaborative undergraduates for a year-long innovation competition. The program invites students across all seven UD colleges to team up, choose their challenge and devise a novel solution.

The 2016-17 edition invites interested students to attend an information session at 5 p.m., Tuesday, Oct. 4, in the STAR Health Sciences Complex. Students can attend with or without a team; the session also will serve as a networking opportunity with potential team members and mentors.

Students will create a team and choose a challenge. Throughout the year, teams will meet with mentors and industry experts as they devise creative solutions to tackle the challenge. In April, the competition closes with a pitch to judges from across industry and academia.

The top teams will walk away with funding to plant the seed for real-world solutions. A total of $25,000 in prize, seed and grant money will go to the winning teams. Students can use the funding (and a network of experts) to create real business, products, apps and other solutions.

“Students can take on these ‘grand challenges’ through a combination of practice, policy, technology, business and research,” said Adam Davey, associate dean for research in the College of Health Sciences. “We are looking for true interdisciplinary ideas from all across campus.”

All teams start with a $500 grant to put toward resources, travel and research. Many groups also receive “follow-on” opportunities such as connections with industry experts, directions into research training and additional competitive opportunities for startups. Teams will choose a mentor skilled in their subject area.

“Mentors help teams discover what they don’t know and learn to avoid pitfalls that others have fallen into and paid dearly to escape,” said Dan Freeman, founding director of the Horn Program in Entrepreneurship.

Now in its fifth year, the program, which started with 20 students, has grown to nearly 100 participants across all seven colleges. It encompasses projects in social ventures, biomedical research and community-based service programs and the program organizers hope to expand its interdisciplinary efforts even further this year. The competition is spearheaded by the College of Health Sciences and the Horn Program in Entrepreneurship.

Last year’s teams tackled topics from homelessness to CPR education to diversity. The first-place champions, Blue Hen Veterans, used First Step to take a military support initiative to a higher level.

"The program provided us with a platform to campaign for a change in culture,” explained senior Mark Footerman, who created a veteran-focused new student orientation program with his First Step teammates. “Veterans on this campus were once an afterthought; with the help of First Step Grand Challenges, we have leapt into the forefront of advocacy on this campus.”

Applications are due by Monday, Oct. 11, at 11:59 p.m. All undergraduate students who are enrolled (at least one-half time) during the 2016-17 academic year are eligible to participate.

For general questions, email Kelly Stevenson at stevensk@udel.edu and specify First Step in the subject line. For application and further details, visit the First Step website.

First Step Grand Challenges timeline

• Oct. 4 — Information session at STAR Health Sciences Complex.

• Oct. 11 — Applications due.

• Oct. 17 — Incubator event for finalists at Venture Development Center.

• Oct. 25 — Selected teams notified.

• October 2016 through April 2017 — Monthly meetings with mentor.

• Feb. 15 4-7 p.m. — Check-in event at Venture Development Center.

• March 8 — PowerPoint Presentation Pitch/Report Prep at Venture Development Center.

• March 22 — Written Project Reports and PowerPoints due.

• April 5 — Presentations and awards dinner.