GBSN welcomes university students from various fields to form teams and engage in an international virtual contest to devise solutions for social logistics issues. The Social Logistics Challenge is designed to immerse learners in a digital environment that promotes teamwork, encourages collaboration, and stimulates innovation in addressing societal problems using logistics principles and technology. Upon finishing the competition, participants can earn an international micro-credential.
Social logistics addresses the failures, gaps, and inequities in how goods, services, people, and information move through systems — and the consequences of those failures for communities. A social logistics problem is one where the root cause or primary leverage point of a social need is the design, operation, or accessibility of a logistics system. Teams are expected to engage directly with that system: diagnosing where and why it fails, for whom, and how it could be redesigned or improved.
The Challenge
Teams are invited to identify a social logistics problem in a community of their choosing and propose an actionable business solution to address it. The proposed solution should be grounded in logistics principles and methods, relevant to the community it serves, clearly identifythe stakeholders involved, and demonstrate alignment with one or more of the 17 UN Sustainable Development Goals. Teams are encouraged to identify technological disruptions relevant to the problem and illustrate the role of technology in their proposed solution.
Submissions must address a problem that falls within one of the following four tracks:
Health and Humanitarian Supply Chains — Logistics failures in health systems and crisis contexts, including stockouts of essential medicines, cold chain breakdowns, last-mile delivery to remote or underserved clinics, and supply chain resilience in humanitarian response settings (including emergency response).
Food Systems and Agricultural Logistics — Supply chain gaps that limit food access or market participation, including post-harvest loss, cold chain infrastructure, smallholder farmer access to buyers and distributors, and food waste in distribution systems.
Urban Access and Mobility — How cities move goods and people, and who gets left out. Problems in this track may include informal settlement logistics, last-mile connectivity for low-income urban residents, informal waste and recycling supply chains, and the logistics of essential services in rapidly urbanizing contexts.
Circular and Environmental Logistics — Reverse logistics and the infrastructure of recovery, including e-waste collection and processing, plastic waste supply chains, and the design of circular economy systems in contexts where formal reverse logistics infrastructure is absent or underdeveloped.
Teams must declare their track at the time of submission. Strong submissions will keep the logistics system at the center of both the problem and the proposed solution.
This is a team-based, virtual challenge, and we encourage teams that feature interdisciplinary and multi-university cooperation.
Form a team of 2-5 students currently enrolled in a higher education institution. We encourage teams that bring together different schools, disciplines, and levels of study. Schools are welcome to have more than one team. Individual registrations are not accepted.
Identify a local problem
Choose a social logistics problem in a community you know within one of the four tracks. Clearly describe the community affected, the stakeholders involved, and how your problem connects to one or more of the 17 UN Sustainable Development Goals.
Develop your solution
Propose a solution that is grounded in logistics principles, relevant to the community you identified, and realistic to implement. Provide evidence of your problem diagnosis, and support your solution with evidence of its feasibility. Present your work in a creative format of your choosing.
Deliverables
Each team will prepare and submit a Solutions Package that incorporates a written report and a visual creative illustration which together communicates both the strength of their analysis and the creativity of their proposed business solution.
▼ Part 1: Written Report
The written report should present a clear, evidence-based business solution that addresses a social logistics problem within one of the four Challenge tracks. It should be approximately 10 pages in length (double spaced) and must be in English or with English translations. It should be submitted as a PDF.
While teams have flexibility in how they structure their report, it should include the following components:
1. Problem Overview
Clearly define the social logistics problem.
Describe the community affected, including a rough estimate of scale (how many people, how much volume, or how often this occurs), and explain why the issue is significant.
Identify the logistics system involved and where in the flow (e.g., of goods, information, people, funding, etc.) the breakdown occurs.
Identify the key stakeholders involved.
Support the problem statement with relevant evidence, data, or research.
2. Business Solution
Present an innovative solution grounded in logistics principles and methods. Describe what makes your approach different from existing or obvious responses to this problem.
Demonstrate that the solution is actionable. Describe concretely how it would work, not only what it aims to achieve.
Explain how the solution addresses the specific logistics mechanism and root causes of the problem.
Describe the value the solution creates for the community and stakeholders.
Highlight any partnerships, resources, or operational considerations required for success.
3. Implementation & Impact
Outline how the solution could be implemented in practice.
Discuss the expected social, economic, and/or environmental outcomes.
For each outcome you claim, identify at least one specific, measurable indicator that could be used to track it.
Explain why the solution is feasible and sustainable over time, including the financial or operational basis for that claim.
4. Supporting Information
Explain how the proposed solution aligns with one or more of the UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).
Identify the single biggest assumption your solution depends on, and what would happen if that assumption turned out to be wrong.
Cite all sources using a consistent citation style.
▼ Part 2: Creative Illustration
Bring your solution to life through a creative illustration that complements your written report. Choose the format that best communicates your ideas—such as a video, infographic, animation, digital prototype, website, storyboard, or another multimedia format. We encourage teams to think beyond traditional presentations and showcase their creativity. Incorporate local perspectives by engaging community members or key stakeholders during your research and fieldwork.
Your creative illustration should:
Clearly communicate the social logistics problem and your proposed solution.
Demonstrate the value, feasibility, and potential impact of your solution.
Engage the audience through compelling storytelling and effective visual communication.
Be presented in English or include English subtitles or translations.
Be approximately 3 minutes in length (or the equivalent for non-video formats).
Artificial Intelligence (AI) and External Content Use Policy
The Social Logistics Challenge is intended to showcase participants’ original thinking, creativity, problem-solving, and collaborative effort. To preserve the integrity of the Challenge, participants are expected to complete their work independently and should not use generative artificial intelligence (AI) tools to develop, write, analyze, or substantially modify their submissions. The organizers reserve the right to request clarification regarding how a submission was developed and may consider inappropriate or undisclosed AI use when determining a submission’s eligibility. GBSN requires teams to ensure that all third-party content and external sources used in the Written Report or Creative Illustration are appropriately cited and credited using any recognized and consistently applied citation style (e.g., APA, MLA, Chicago, or Harvard), including, where applicable, citations, acknowledgements, references, or end credits.
Timeline
Team Registration Deadline: November 1, 2026
Challenge Submission Deadline: November 15, 2026
Preliminary Judging Period: November 17-22, 2026
Student Networking Session: November 18, 2026
Top 5 Teams Announced: November 23, 2026
Top Five Team Presentations: December 1-2, 2026
Winning Team Announced: Decemeber 7, 2026
Award Guidelines
Thanks to our sponsors, a $5,000 scholarship prize will be awarded to the 1st place team, and $1,000 to the 2nd and 3rd place teams!
Prize funds will be transferred via the students’ respective institutions’ financial departments. GBSN will direct the institution to distribute the funds equally among team members in in support of educational expenses (i.e., school materials, housing, tuition, and programs), but the manner and timing of distribution is ultimately determined by the receiving institution and its policies. Teams are encouraged to familiarize themselves with their university’s policies regarding receipt of external award funds.
Judging Process& Criteria
Judging for the competition will take place in two phases. During the Preliminary Judging phase, each judge will evaluate approximately six team submissions to determine the Top Five teams that will advance to the Finals. Preliminary judging will be conducted November 17–22. The Finals Round will take place December 1–2 and will feature live presentations by the Top Five teams to a panel of final judges, who will select the competition winners.
Finals Round: LIVE Presentations + Judging Panel Q&A
The Top 5 teams will deliver a LIVE presentation to a panel of judges, followed by a Q&A. The full session will be recorded.
10-minute LIVE presentation
All team members must participate in the LIVE pitch for the team to be eligible to win the prize. Participation is defined as a minimum of 1 minute of speaking during the presentation.
Teams can include supplemental materials to support their LIVE presentations in the finals round, including, but not limited to the previously submitted creative illustration.
15-minute Q&A with the final judges
All team members must remain present for the virtual Q&A
The Q&A will be moderated by a GBSN staff member to keep time and ensure equal distribution of participation between judges and teams
Assistant Lecturer and PhD Student in Management (Innovation, Strategy and Entrepreneurship) Jönköping International Business School (JIBS), School of Business, University of Rwanda Rwanda
Associate Professor, Department of International Business and Economics Faculty of International Business and Economics, The Bucharest University of Economic Studies Romania
Head of Program LEARN LOGISTICS by Kühne Foundation Germany
Sponsors
We would like to thank our sponsors for supporting the Social Logistics Challenge! Sponsorships fund the challenge’s prizes, tools, resources, and more, enabling GBSN to build and execute a meaningful virtual learning experience for each cohort of student teams.
Edinburgh Business School from Heriot-Watt University
Edinburgh Business School is a mission-led, global hub of business knowledge and research. With a long-tradition of offering inclusive, experiential learning for the ambitious leaders of tomorrow, we leverage our campuses in Dubai, Malaysia, and Edinburgh to create maximum worldwide impact.
The Kühne Foundation
The non-profit Kühne Foundation was established by the Kühne family in Switzerland in 1976. Today it is renowned for its initiatives to support academic and further education as well as research in the fields of logistics and supply chain management. The Kühne Foundation is also strongly involved in medical, cultural and humanitarian projects. It is an operative foundation, which develops almost all of its projects itself. Through its extensive funding projects, the Kühne Foundation and its donor Klaus-Michael Kühne exercise their socio-political responsibility.The Kühne Foundation pursues the goal of supporting and developing logistics as an academic field. Logistics plays a cross-sectional function in the global economy and is currently facing major challenges – one clear example being the coronavirus crisis. Digitalisation, along with the call for climate and environment protection are leading to transformations that require innovative approaches.
The Resiliency Intiative
The Resiliency Initiative (TRI) is a certified Woman-Owned Small Business (WOSB) with Fortune 500, government, military and non-profit leadership experience specializing in business continuity, crisis, security, and risk mitigation planning and training services.
