How can tribal communities advance renewable energy, food, or water access and contribute to economic prosperity and sovereignty?

Challenge Overview

The Oceti Sakowin lived on sustainable energy sources generations ago, and the Oceti community continues to hold an invaluable amount of knowledge and innovation in this space. To honor this, we would like to announce an inaugural 2018 MIT Solve Fellowship with the Oceti Sakowin. This Fellowship will support outstanding members of the Oceti community who have tested projects that bring renewable energy, food, and/or water to the community and contribute to economic prosperity and sovereignty. Through this Fellowship, we hope to support these community members to expand and accelerate their projects and their impact, building a strong foundation for the Oceti Sakowin community from within the Oceti Sakowin community.

Innovators come in many different forms—applicants do not need to have a formal business or nonprofit organization to apply. The Fellowship is open to anyone with a tested project—and may be as simple as a prototype. However, applicants must have more than an idea. Solve is focused on those who take initiative for the betterment of their community and have good solutions to the challenges of renewable energy, food, or water sovereignty, and equitable access.

Fellowship Components

Note that the deadline for submissions is Tuesday, March 27.

Each Fellow will be welcomed as our guest for an all-expenses-paid trip to MIT in Cambridge, MA from May 14-18, 2018. There will be a dedicated program to help support their project and to attend MIT Solve’s annual flagship event, Solve at MIT, and find partners among the 350+ attendees from the corporate, foundation, non-profit, and academic sectors. This will also be an opportunity to meet with MIT faculty, staff, and students. Together, Fellows will craft a plan of action to support their project, and MIT Solve will leverage relationships within MIT and outside to broker partnerships and find resources to uplift the Fellows’ projects. In August 2018, we will reconvene in Standing Rock to learn about the progress and potential of the Oceti Fellows’ projects.

In addition to covered travel expenses, each Fellow will receive Fellowship funding of $10,000 to help advance their project.

Fellow Applicant Qualifications

MIT Solve is seeking applications for the Oceti Sakowin | Solve Fellows program. We are specifically looking for diversity of projects and people, and encourage applications from all ages (13+), genders, and scopes of project within the following parameters:

Fellow applicants should:

• Be a member of the Oceti Sakowin

• Live and/or work on the reservation; be part of the community

• Have a tested or existing project based in and serving the surrounding community focused on renewable energy, food, or water

• Include some aspect of technology in their project (both high tech and low tech will be considered)

• Be available and interested in coming to Boston for the Solve at MIT event May 14-18, 2018 (travel expenses covered by MIT) and a Summit in Standing Rock in August 2018 (exact dates subject to change).