The Accelerator connects, empowers, and transforms emergent agents of social change across the globe.
The program engages participants through an eight-month project-based collaborative learning journey (including a fully-sponsored week-long in-person retreat, ‘‘CoLab‘ in Germany) to refine social impact initiatives they are spearheading, build collective leadership competencies, and ignite transformative change that cut across barriers of place and identity, furthering the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).
A must-have resource for applicants - Access in-depth information about the program!
Chosen among hundreds of applicants worldwide, up to 20 selected participants will work together to refine and scale their impactful community projects. Through intentional peer learning, subject matter advisory, and leading-edge thematic contributions, the program provides a springboard for participants to tap into the fullest potential of their social impact projects!
Upto 20 actively engaged participants will also be invited to attend the fully-sponsored week-long in-person retreat, ‘CoLab‘ in Germany in July 2023, and furthermore, a signature program of the Melton Foundation, the Accelerator is deeply intertwined with our unique community of global citizenship practice, and, for successful participants, the program becomes a gateway to joining the life-long Melton Foundation Fellowship!
In today’s interconnected world, we can see the sheer magnitude of solutions to pressing issues. Imagine if we can intersect these solutions, turning local impact into global potential and changing the world from the grassroots level to the global level and back again. The Accelerator creates that space for emerging change agents to exchange and collaborate genuinely to advance their initiative while contributing to those of others. By encompassing transformative approaches that have emerged through cross-boundary exchange and collaborative action, our 8-month program accelerates social impact projects through a global citizenship paradigm.
Check back in December 2023 for applications to the 2024 cohort.
The Accelerator is an 8-month, peer-driven, and collaboration-based leadership program with practical learning and implementation.
The Accelerator engages emerging change agents from different world regions around developing competencies for global citizenship and sustainable development practices. Over the course of 8 months, participants engaged in blended learning, project assignments, peer exchange, and subject matter advisory to build key capacity to amplify the transformative potential of their social impact projects.
By joining the program, participants stand to gain valuable competencies and insights, both from mentors and peers! Here are some key benefits of becoming a part of the Accelerator!
The Co-Lab convenes emerging leaders, i.e participants from our Accelerator, from across sectors and geographies to learn, collaborate, and co-create meaningful solutions to advance Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) on a local level with the global context in mind. The 2023 edition of the Co-Lab will be held from 2-7 July 2023 in Gotha & Jena, Germany, and will enable active Accelerator participants from around the world to meet and collaborate in person!
The program is a transformative learning journey with participants from around the globe, building upon their experiences to emerge as socially responsible, collaborative community leaders!
Prepare for your 2024 application from today!
An application guide containing the information you'll be asked to provide is available for download here. You can use it to develop your responses offline before submitting them.
The first and most important step is to submit your application using THIS ONLINE APPLICATION FORM within the application deadline.
Important consideration: Don’t rush it! When developing your application, take the time you need to share your most authentic and honest answer(s). Some questions invite you to shine, and outline the great work you do – other questions invite you to take a more critical stance. Both can be challenging, and yet we invite you to fill them in with dedication and care. The perfect application to us is the one that provides us with deep(er) insights into you and the work you do.
During the selection process, we apply a threefold filter to identify the best-suited candidates:
(a) a technical review to ensure that information provided with the application is complete and sufficiently informative
(b) an eligibility check to identify candidates who fully meet the eligibility criteria
(c) an in-depth assessment to identify well-suited candidates for the program.
(d) a 120 min virtual assessment center for well-suited candidates.
The up to 20 selected candidates will receive detailed information about the next steps, including how to pay the program fees, materials to prepare, and the onboarding process for the program.
Candidates who don’t make it into the final selection will be kept on a waitlist in case any of the finalists must withdraw their participation.
During the 120 min virtual Assessment Center, shortlisted candidates will be assessed on their collaboration, teamwork, and communication skills. Invitations to the Assessment Center will be sent to suited candidates 5-7 days prior to the session.
In April, selected participants will be added to the respective platforms and communication channels deployed throughout the program. They will also receive initial onboarding instructions and will be asked to complete an assessment survey to provide further details about their work, project, and expertise.
Starting May, participants embark on a collaborative learning journey to (a) build capacity at the personal level, (b) pivot transformative potential at the project level, and (c) converge networks for social change at the collective level.
Participants engage with eight different thematic modules to learn, unlearn and relearn what team efficiency, project effectiveness, systemic factors, collective leadership, social innovation & transformative change, impact modeling, value creation, and impact measurement means and how an intentional alignment of these elements can contribute to positioning SDG projects for disruptive, transformative change at the local to the global level, and back again. Bi-weekly meetings and asynchronous assignments help pace the journey and deepen the learning each step along the way.
The 2023 edition of the Co-Lab will be held from 2-7 July 2023 in Gotha & Jena, Germany, and will enable active Accelerator participants from around the world to meet and collaborate in person!
The Co-Lab is the space where sectors, cultures, identities, and know-how converge into something “greater than the sum of its parts”. It’s a space to deepen your understanding of complex global issues, grow capacity, build networks for impact, and broaden your impact horizons. It’s a space to pivot your passion, drive and expertise as you connect, collaborate and co-create hands-on with emerging leaders from across place, identity and field. It’s an opportunity to envision and help create a future that ensures lives of dignity for all.
Learn more: https://meltonfoundation.org/global-events/global-solvers-co-lab/
Upon successful completion of the Accelerator, participants are eligible to join the Melton Fellowship as a Senior Fellow. The Melton Fellowship is designed as a lifelong, supported network through which the Melton Foundation fosters and pivots global citizenship development on a very need-tailored basis, including unique learning activities, project grants, networking opportunities, and more.
A Community of Practice, the Melton Fellowship offers spaces to connect, contribute and collaborate for Fellows who are eager to do so. The underpinning mantra of our Fellowship is “what you give is what you get” – like with other unique opportunities it is eventually down to us to receive as well as to give (back).
-Sulaima Ramadan, 2021 Participant
- Sagheer Ahmed, 2021 participant
For more information, useful links, and insightful application tips, click through to the Frequently Asked Questions!
To further our main objective of making the program truly global, leading-edge, and accessible to all, the Accelerator is partnering with innovative organizations, including:
Meet Ernst Abbe Stiftung
Co-Sponsor
Read Bio
Meet Gotha Research Center
Partner and Collaborator
Read BioWith the Abbe Institute for Foundations, the Ernst Abbe Foundation, in cooperation with the Friedrich Schiller University, has created a platform that promotes foundations and associations.
It combines science and practice in publications, such as the journal for foundations and associations (ZStV), university teaching and events on the subject of foundations and associations, such as the Thuringian Foundation Talks and the course to become a “Certified Foundation Advisor”.
As an independent competence center, the institute is the point of contact for the Free State of Thuringia, the federal government and foundation authorities in all federal states.
The Thuringian foundation database managed by the institute shows all foundations located in Thuringia or mainly active there, together with their purpose in the statute and contact persons. Unlike the foundation register of the state, both independent and dependent foundations are recorded. The aim of the database is to support potential project partners in “finding and being found”.
The Gotha Research Center at the Erfurt University deals with the history of culture and knowledge in modern times. In this sense, we are interested both in elaborate forms of knowledge – philosophy, erudition, natural history, arcane knowledge, especially with a view to the prehistory of the later humanities and cultural studies – as well as in more practical forms of knowledge, whether these are now institutionally formed (e.g. administrative, state and legal knowledge) or predominantly experience-based (practical knowledge, lay or everyday knowledge, “tacit knowledge”). The epistemological focus of our research lies in particular on knowledge production, i.e. the practices that produce and structure knowledge. In addition to knowledge handed down in texts, we examine both pictorial knowledge – stored, for example, in emblematic representations.
Our research thus combines a broad spectrum of questions and topics, ranging from the classic history of ideas and the cultural history of collecting to current new approaches in historical science research (history of science, history of scholarship) and which always involves other historical and cultural disciplines connects.
Whether as a participant in our program, a network partner, or supporter – we offer ample avenues for you to continue to be an integral member of our close-knit community! Take a look at the various options open for engaging with us!
