GenAI for Good Challenge 2025 ($25k Grand Prize)
- Omran Aburayya
- Oct 14
- 5 min read
If you’re someone working at the intersection of technology and social impact, the GenAI for Good Challenge is a gold-mine of opportunity. Applications are now open (from 7 October 2025), inviting innovators, technologists, development practitioners, and changemakers to design generative AI solutions for real-world problems in health, agriculture, and climate resilience. With global reach, open-source requirements, funding support, expert mentorship, and deployment pathways, this Challenge offers a unique platform to shape AI for public good.
👩🏻💻 Summary at a Glance
Location / Scope: Global
Organizers: ITU (International Telecommunication Union) in partnership with IEEE (Humanitarian Technologies)
Opportunity Type: Innovation / Challenge / Prototype competition
Target Group: Technologists, innovators, multidisciplinary teams, public-sector collaborators
Focus Fields: Health, Agriculture, Climate Resilience
Award Value: Up to USD 25,000 per winning team
Application Deadline: 1 December 2025
Eligible Applicants: Global — teams from any country; applicants must propose open-source generative AI solutions; multidisciplinary teams encouraged
🧭 Challenge Overview
The GenAI for Good Challenge is an initiative to catalyze generative AI (GenAI) innovation in the public sector, focusing on sectors that directly impact communities: health, agriculture, and climate. It invites teams to build AI assistants and tools that can be deployed in real-world settings, collaborating with public institutions and development partners.
Key pillars of the Challenge include:
Responsible, open-source AI: All submissions and resulting solutions must be open source, promoting transparency, auditability, and reusability.
Use of the GENIE.AI framework: Participants are expected to work with GENIE.AI (a generative AI framework tailored for public services) to design cost-efficient, scalable solutions.
Two-phase competition structure:
1. Phase One: Narrative proposals, where teams submit design, implementation plan, expected impact, and innovation relative to baseline.
2. Phase Two: Finalists are asked to build functional prototypes in cloud environments provided by organizers, with feedback, testing, and evaluation.
Open evaluation and transparency: A multidisciplinary jury (including IEEE, ITU, domain experts, public sector stakeholders) will assess proposals against predefined criteria (to be published in advance)
Deployment orientation: The idea is not just to ideate, but to pilot, test, and deploy in real-world settings, guided by local and thematic partners.
Support & Capacity Building: Winners and finalists gain mentorship, access to expert networks, capacity-building resources, technical infrastructure, and possible alignment with public-sector partners for pilot deployment.
Also notable is that the Challenge is supported by the Open Source Ecosystem Enabler (OSEE) initiative, which aims to foster open-source digital public goods and strengthen local digital ecosystems.
💡 Focus Areas & Use Cases
The Challenge highlights three focus areas (domains) tied to real use cases in specific countries.
Agriculture Extension Chatbot (Lesotho)
Objective: Improve agricultural productivity and resilience by delivering timely, relevant, and localized farming guidance to smallholder farmers and extension officers.
Features & modalities: Voice-based access, SMS/text fallback, offline caching, crop health alerts, market price insights, pest/disease advisories.
Challenges to address: Low connectivity, literacy constraints, multi-lingual support, integration with local extension systems.
NCD Prevention & Management Chatbot (The Gambia)
Objective: Strengthen public health by offering personalized guidance on preventing and managing non-communicable diseases (hypertension, diabetes, tobacco use).
Features: Multilingual interface, behavior-change nudges, risk assessment, tailored recommendations, reminders, referral links to health services.
Challenges: Health literacy, trust, integrating local health system data, privacy and data protection, cultural adaptation.
Extreme Weather / Climate Advisor (Bangladesh)
Objective: Enhance climate resilience of smallholder farmers by delivering advanced warnings, risk insights, and adaptation guidance specific to crops and landscapes.
Features: Hyperlocal weather forecasts, drought alerts, irrigation scheduling, soil moisture tips, crop-switching advice, water-saving techniques.
Challenges: High data granularity, integration with meteorological services, on-the-ground validation, interpretability of forecasts for farmers.
These focus areas embed real needs and are aligned with sustainable development goals in food security, health, and climate adaptation.
💲 Benefits & Support
Financial backing: Up to USD 25,000 for winning teams to further develop and deploy their solution.
Technical infrastructure: Access to cloud environments, open-source tooling (GENIE.AI), and related resources for prototype development.
Mentorship and expert guidance: Domain experts, public-sector stakeholders, and development partners will provide feedback and support.
Global networks & visibility: Leverage IEEE, ITU, and partner networks to connect with stakeholders, potential adopters, and collaborators.
Deployment pathways: Opportunities to pilot or scale within partner institutions or local governments to test real-world impact.
Open-source legacy: Your solution becomes part of a larger public good ecosystem—others can build on, adapt, and extend it for new contexts.
Skill building & learning: Engage with best practices in responsible AI, public-sector deployment, open-source engineering, and cross-disciplinary collaboration.
✅ Eligibility & Evaluation Criteria
Eligibility Highlights
Any country / global participation is allowed.
Solutions must be open-source, using permissive licenses and be transparent.
Multidisciplinary teams are encouraged (tech + domain + public policy / social impact).
Applicants should demonstrate experience or motivation in AI for good, public service or open-source.
Some challenge notices mention requirement of an active IEEE membership for at least one team member (check detailed rules).
🔍 Evaluation Criteria (anticipated / to be published)
While full criteria will be released with each phase, evaluation is likely to consider:
Impact & relevance: How well the proposed solution addresses the needs in the focus use case, and the measurable benefit to communities.
Technical feasibility & innovation: Quality of design, architectural soundness, use of generative AI, integration with GENIE.AI, scalability.
Open-source quality: Code quality, documentation, licensing, transparency, reproducibility.
Sustainability & deployment potential: How the solution can be maintained, adapted, and scaled after the Challenge.
Partnership & adoption plan: Strong collaborations with public-sector stakeholders, local institutions, or domain partners.
📝 Application Procedure
Application Steps
Apply to the focus area you're interested in available on this webpage
Register / Join interest list to receive updates and application materials.
Attend or review online information sessions (13 & 14 October 2025) for clarifications on focus areas, the technical framework, toolkits, and data.
Submit Phase One narrative proposal (design rationale, implementation plan, expected impact) by deadline.
Finalist selection & feedback: Selected teams move to Phase Two.
Prototype development & submission in cloud environments provided by organizers.
Evaluation, pilot deployment & winner announcements (April 2026)
📆 Timeline / Key Dates
Applications open: 7 October 2025
Public Launch: 8 October 2025
Online info sessions: 13 & 14 October 2025
Deadline (Phase One): 1 December 2025
Finalists notified: Week of 19 January 2026
Winners announced: April 2026
💡 Extra Insights & Recommendations
Because all outputs must be open source, consider emphasizing modularity, documentation, version control, test suites, and community support design from the start.
Leverage the GENIE.AI framework early in design to align with organizers’ expectations and reduce integration challenges.
In your narrative proposal, emphasize not just the “what” but the pathway to adoption — who will use it, how it will be sustained, how local institutions will support it, and how it might scale or adapt.
Monitor the official ITU / IEEE channels for full evaluation criteria, toolkit releases, and code repositories.
Even if your country is not among the sample use-case countries, you may propose adaptations or extensions, but ensure alignment with the core focus areas and public-sector relevance.
Recordings of the information sessions will be posted for those unable to attend live.
The OSEE initiative is a long-term enabler — your project may fit into broader open-source and digital public goods ecosystems.