2023 Better Working World Data Challenge

The world is asking for change

Sustainability is the most pressing issue of our time. At EY, we believe that value-led sustainability is bigger than any one business. It’s everybody’s business.

Held annually, the EY Open Science Data Challenge produces new intellectual property (IP) that drives more intelligent, data-centered decisions to mitigating global sustainability issues. We then make this IP available to public and private entities for noncommercial purposes.

Working together, we can scale our impact through data, artificial intelligence and technology to collectively build a sustainable future for society and the planet.

Aligned with our purpose of building a better working world and working in conjunction with the EY Ripples program, EY developed this initiative to support the UN Sustainable Development Goals and contribute through the application of data science. As the availability of data has grown exponentially, so has the passion and interest in participating in the challenge. Together, we have tackled topics such as detecting and managing world fires, protecting biodiversity, and solving world hunger.

Are you ready for the 2024 challenge?

Building coastal resilience

Because some of the most vulnerable areas to climate change are low-lying coastal zones in developing countries and small island states, we are centering the 2024 challenge around the topic of coastal resilience and nature-based solutions to climate change in data-poor environments.

The primary goal of the challenge will be to develop baseline data for coastal resilience in data-poor environments through land classification models using satellite data and machine learning algorithms. The secondary goal of this challenge is to further combine these models with topographic, population and socioeconomic data to model coastal vulnerability and climate risk, and to assess storm damage after the impact of tropical cyclones.

Cash prizes

Not only will participants’ models help make a difference in changing the world, the winning entries are eligible for cash prizes up to $10,000.

Who can enter

Any university student or early-career professional with less than two years of experience can join the challenge. It is also open to EY employees.

Registration for the 2024 challenge will be open soon. Stay tuned for how to register and other key challenge details.

Better Working World Data Challenge 2022

Life in all its various forms is biodiversity. This variety of life is fundamental to the function of ecosystems, the health of forests – and even our prosperity.

Help us build computational models to locate biodiversity, specifically frogs. Frogs are a go-to for scientists wanting to study the health of a particular ecosystem.

The winning outputs will help scientists, policymakers and governments to protect and predict the richness of biodiversity in a specific area.

Join us to collectively help save the plants, animals and microorganisms that are critical to a healthy society and a thriving economy. 

Congratulations to the 2021 Better Working World Data Challenge winners! 

Thank you to everyone who participated in the 2021 Better Working World Data Challenge.

Over 8,500 students and young professionals from more than 115 countries took part in the Challenge to develop an automated fire-edge detection and prediction model and help firefighters make more timely and informed decisions, and ultimately helping to save lives, property and biodiversity from the effects of wildfires.