SDG Innovation Accelerator for Young Professionals

Benefits & funding

• Nine months of structured innovation training inside the UN Global Compact Academy, delivered through webinars, local one-day workshops, challenge labs and live case studies.
• Coaching and mentoring: each team works with an external mentor and a senior-management champion from its own company.
• Company visits and expert-led forum discussions on sustainability and business-model innovation.
• Access to a peer network of young professionals from participating companies worldwide.
• Fees vary by country track. The UK track charged £2,650 plus VAT per team of 3 to 4 participants for 2026.
• No stipend, salary, travel grant or prize money is described on the programme pages.

Eligibility

• Employment at a company that participates in the UN Global Compact. The company nominates its team, and places are subject to network approval.
• Age 35 or younger.
• Interest in business-model innovation, sustainability and disruptive technologies.
• Capacity to give at least four hours a month to the Accelerator Learning Plan and to attend at least four one-day workshops.
• Team shape: 1 to 4 teams per company, each with 2 to 4 innovators, one champion from senior management (minimum one hour a month) and one external mentor (minimum one hour a month).
• In-country tracks cover Bangladesh, Central Asia, China, Colombia, Croatia, France, Georgia, Ghana, Indonesia, Kenya, Malaysia and Brunei, Mexico, Netherlands, Nigeria, Philippines, Poland, Saudi Arabia, Serbia, South Africa, Sweden, Türkiye, the United Kingdom and the United States. An Africa Track covers Egypt and the Indian Ocean Region. Companies without a country network can join the English-language Global Track, where places are limited.
• No nationality, residency or degree requirement is stated; the gate is the employer’s membership, not the applicant’s passport.

Application process

1. 1
   Check that your employer is a participating company of the UN Global Compact and identify which track it falls under: an in-country track, the Africa Track, or the Global Track.
2. 2
   Attend or watch the information session held before the window opens; the 2026 cycle session was on 2 December 2025.
3. 3
   Work with your employer to assemble the team: 2 to 4 innovators, a senior-management champion and an external mentor.
4. 4
   Submit the company’s nomination through the programme page while applications are open; the 2026 window ran from 15 October 2025 to 31 January 2026.
5. 5
   Wait for confirmation of places, which the relevant network approves.
6. 6
   Confirmed teams begin the learning plan and workshop cycle when the cohort starts in February.

Program timeline

1. 15 October 2025

   Applications open for the 2026 cohort

2. Information session

   2 December 2025

3. 31 January 2026

   Application deadline for the 2026 cohort

4. Programme begins

   February 2026

5. Programme ends

   September 2026

6. the next cycle is expected to open, following the previous cycle’s pattern; the programme page has not confirmed a date

   Around October 2026