Global competition Heidelberg Students Win Innovation Competition Focused on Sustainability
20 November 2025
SDG Olympiad 2025: Helen Harig and Tony Alnasri receive the Gold Medal for their innovative approach to insulin provision in crisis regions
Two Heidelberg University students are among the winners of the 2025 SDG Olympiad – a student innovation competition focused on sustainability. Alongside a student team from the University of Copenhagen, Helen Harig (Geography) and Tony Alnasri (Medicine) impressed the international judging panel with their approach to insulin provision in crisis regions. Their two-phase model is intended to ensure that children with type 1 diabetes still have access to insulin in emergencies. This action plan was awarded the Gold Medal in the international competition.
The SDG Olympiad has been hosted by twelve partner universities since 2024. The competition aims to support students in developing innovative approaches to implementing the UN Sustainable Development Goals. These 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) are policy objectives of the United Nations, designed to secure sustainable development worldwide at the economic, social and environmental levels.
The project that took gold – ‘Community-Based Action Plan for T1D Children’ – sets out an action plan that links families, Red Cross staff and secure storage sites in Lebanon to ensure access to insulin even in emergencies. “Our goal was to create a solution that works on the ground. It is intended to enable families to take action themselves in crisis situations,” explain Helen Harig and Tony Alnasri. “Those affected know where insulin is stored and how to access it in an emergency.” The judges praised the project’s strong local grounding as particularly innovative. It builds on existing structures to allow for rapid and effective responses, meaning it can be adopted in other regions facing similar challenges. The action plan was developed with the support of the Danish Red Cross and is now to be implemented in partnership with the organization.
Helen Harig has been studying for a Bachelor’s degree in Geography at Heidelberg University since 2023 and learned about the SDG Olympiad during her studies. “Engaging with the UN Sustainable Development Goals is a growing and valuable part of studying Geography, especially in human geography.” Tony Alnasri is in his ninth semester of Medicine at Heidelberg University. He took part in the SDG Olympiad because he is particularly interested in the field of global health. During hospital placements and his clinical elective, he gained deeper insights into the health systems in Taiwan and Ecuador. “These experiences made me aware of healthcare crises that simply don’t exist here in Germany.”
For the Heidelberg students, participation in the SDG Olympiad 2025 was made possible by a mobility grant from the 4EU+ European University Alliance with funding from the German Academic Exchange Service (DAAD). With this support, Helen Harig and Tony Alnasri successfully competed in August 2025 in the University of Copenhagen’s “Global Health Solutions” competition. This qualified them for the final of the SDG Olympiad, held from 10 to 14 October 2025 at the University of Geneva. In total, more than 700 students worldwide took part in the Olympiad. In Geneva, 14 finalist teams presented their solutions on topics such as health, environment, education and social justice to an international panel of experts.
The 4EU+ European University Alliance brings together the eight universities of Prague, Heidelberg, Paris-Panthéon-Assas, Sorbonne/Paris, Copenhagen, Geneva, Milan and Warsaw. The group of partner universities is one of the university alliances funded in the context of the Erasmus+ European Universities call. By supporting strategic higher education partnerships and building up an integrated university system, the European Commission pursues the goal of clustering research, teaching and innovation in Europe in new structures, and thereby modernizing and strengthening the European Education Area.