What is Sustainability?
What is the challenge?
The Bronco Challenge for Sustainable Impact will kick off its 4th year for the 2025-2026 academic year and is growing in size every year. It is a team-based competition designed to offer students the chance to compete for prize money instead of grades. Interdisciplinary teams of four collaborate to address real-world challenges through research, innovation, and teamwork.
Each project is inspired by the "United Nations' 17 Sustainable Development Goals", offering teams a global framework to drive meaningful change.
Why the challenge matters :
In a world grappling with complex, interconnected problems, the Bronco Challenge is more than a competition — it’s a catalyst for change, introducing students from diverse disciplines at Western Michigan University to the mission of building a sustainable future.
By collaborating across diverse disciplines, students engage deeply and explore multiple perspectives on pressing global issues such as poverty, inequality, and climate change. This interdisciplinary approach challenges them to develop solutions that are equitable, resilient, and environmentally conscious.
What You Can Gain from the Challenge :
The Bronco Challenge empowers students to move beyond traditional academic boundaries. working together, they develop solution that are thoughtful, creative, and deeply grounded in sustainability, participants gain:
- Skills in innovative and systemic thinking
- Experience working across disciplines
- The ability to lead with purpose and vision
- Prize money $10,000, $5,000, and $3,000 awarded to the top three teams
If you think your Bronco Challenge idea may have commercial potential, you should explore the resources available from Westerns Starting Gate.
Matching Tool for Team Formation :
Steps to success :
The Bronco Challenge is open to all full-time WMU students, regardless of major or academic level, from first-year undergraduates to post graduate students.
To participate, students must:
Be enrolled at WMU for both the Fall and Spring semesters.
Form a self-selected 4-person team that brings together diverse perspectives, with members representing expertise in at least two (ideally three) different academic disciplines. For help forming a team, check out our Matching Tool.
Design a project that addresses or helps mitigate a real-world issue aligned with one or more of the United Nations’ Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).
For more details, follow the guidelines in the 2025-26 Bronco Challenge for Sustainable Impact
Learn about the challenge at these events!
- Business Bash: September 18 from 11 a.m. to 2 p.m. - Schneider Hall Courtyard
- WMU Sustainability Celebration September 19 from 11 a.m. to 2 p.m. Sangren Plaza
Networking Opportunities :
Find your team at our Project Development workshops!
- October 1 from 2 to 5 p.m. - Ballroom B
- October 7 from 2 to 5 p.m. - Ballroom A
Let's unite in our efforts to build a brighter, more sustainable future for all.
What does a winning team and solution look like ?
- Each team should involve 4 students from different fields of study (for example: business, engineering, education, and fine arts) that demonstrate strong teamwork by leveraging each member’s background.
- Students identify a real-world problem that aligns with one of the 17 United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) and work together to create a solution with a fresh take on the issue.
- Students develop their idea further by outlining how it can be applied, tested, or implemented. This could involve research, prototyping, business planning, or community engagement depending on the SDG they target.
- Bronco challenge solutions must show clear potential to positively influence people, communities, or the environment.
- The Bronco challenge is a competition for ideas. Solutions may be the idea for a new business, a new product, a new service or a new public policy, Students are not required to build anything or implement their idea, but must argue its technical, economic, or social feasibility, as applicable.
Contact :
The Bronco Challenge Leadership team will be available to meet with teams or individuals to provide guidance and assistance in finding a team, recruiting team members, selecting a project, etc.
Contact Professor Neil Drobny, PhD with any questions: @email
Matching Tool
For Students looking to join a team :
Browse the list of team requests. Each request shows the team's contact information and the skills they are looking for.
For Teams looking for students :
Browse the list of student profiles. Each profile shows the student's contact information, major, SDGs of interest and skillsets.