Youth Innovation & Sustainability Lab
A collaborative platform where young professionals and students design, test and refine ideas that advance sustainability and inclusive growth.
Concept
The Youth Innovation & Sustainability Lab is a Nova Crest initiative that creates space for emerging talent to work on real sustainability challenges with guidance from experienced practitioners.
The Lab brings together multidisciplinary teams – from engineering, agriculture, business, data, policy and design – to co-create solutions that can be tested in real-world settings.
Why This Matters
- Young professionals are close to the problems and opportunities in their communities.
- They often lack structured pathways to turn ideas into implementable projects.
- Institutions are looking for fresh, locally grounded ideas that can be scaled.
How the Lab Works
- Challenge themes: Each cycle focuses on themes such as green jobs, circular economy, climate adaptation or social innovation.
- Open call: Young professionals and students apply individually or in teams.
- Co-creation sprints: Participants go through structured design sprints, mentorship sessions and clinics with Nova Crest consultants and invited experts.
- Prototyping & testing: Short experiments or pilots are supported to test the most promising ideas.
- Showcase & linkage: Teams present solutions to partners, investors and programme owners who may support further development.
Target Participants
Early-career professionals, graduate students, young entrepreneurs and innovators with an interest in sustainability, data, policy, technology, agriculture, energy, finance or social impact.
What Participants Gain
- Hands-on experience working on real sustainability challenges.
- Access to mentors from Nova Crest and partner organisations.
- Opportunities to connect with potential employers, funders and collaborators.
- Improved skills in problem-solving, communication and project design.
Current Cycle
The first cycle of the Lab is being shaped around “Green Jobs & Local Value Creation”. Nova Crest is identifying institutional partners and challenge owners who would like to co-define problem statements for participants to work on.
Partner with the Lab
Organisations can support the Lab by providing challenge briefs, mentorship, data, seed funding or placement opportunities for participants.
Explore partnership or sponsorship