An annual $100,000 prize program to support the development and implementation of a solution that has significant potential to solve humanity’s most pressing problems.

DEADLINE FOR ENTRIES: NOVEMBER 7TH, 2008

SEPTEMBER 18, 2008 NEW YORK CITY – The Buckminster Fuller Institute announces the call for entries to the 2009 Buckminster Fuller Challenge.

The world financial system is in chaos; vital ecosystems are under stress; climate change and its consequences are daily news; and the bare essentials of human life – food, water, and shelter – remain out of reach for billions of people.

Challenges of this magnitude require bold, visionary strategies; they require what Buckminster Fuller called “a design revolution.” Great stand-alone solutions – pieces of a larger puzzle – are out there, but it will take more than an innovative gadget or isolated technological breakthrough to tackle the problems of a complex and interconnected world.

“We’re looking for comprehensive anticipatory design solutions that address multiple problems without creating new ones down the road – integrated strategies dealing with key social, economic, environmental, and cultural issues,” explains Elizabeth Thompson, Executive Director of the Buckminster Fuller Institute. As stated in this year’s call for entries, these design strategies “must present a bold, visionary, tangible initiative that is focused on a well-defined need of critical importance. They should be regionally specific yet globally applicable, and backed up by a solid plan and the capability to move the solution forward.”

“Bucky would have been enormously excited by the 2008 award to Dr. John Todd, for his solution, Comprehensive Design for a Carbon Neutral World: The Challenge of Appalachia. It set a benchmark in its comprehensivity of vision, a careful fusion of design and science, addressing an area of critical need. We know there are many others out there. It is our hope that the Challenge will be effective in bringing these solutions focus, acknowledgement and the resources needed for implementation. We are eager to continue the work we began with last year’s Challenge,” says Allegra Fuller Snyder, Fuller’s daughter and Chair of the Buckminster Fuller Institute Board of Directors.

The deadline for entries is midnight (Eastern time) on November 7th, 2008. The members of this year’s distinguished jury will be announced in October.

For the call for entries, instructions for how to enter, reference materials, and much more, visit http://bfi.org/sites/bfi.org/modules/civicrm/extern/url.php?u=18167&qid=266659

To view entries to the 2008 Challenge, visit the Idea Index http://bfi.org/sites/bfi.org/modules/civicrm/extern/url.php?u=18168&qid=266659

Watch the Buckminster Fuller Challenge movie http://bfi.org/sites/bfi.org/modules/civicrm/extern/url.php?u=18169&qid=266659

The Buckminster Fuller Challenge – SEE THE MOVIE! from Buckminster Fuller Institute on Vimeo.