Follow the Mayors Challenge

A banner for the 2025 Global Mayors Challenge depicting a sanitation worker helping clean up a city. It reads, "Core city services, reimagined."

FOLLOW THE 2025 MAYORS CHALLENGE AND GOVERNMENT INNOVATION HAPPENING IN CITIES AROUND THE WORLD

Welcome to the Bloomberg Philanthropies Global Mayors Challenge, a competition to spur government innovation that improves lives in cities around the world. The sixth Challenge, which is currently underway, calls on mayors to work with residents and entrepreneurs to radically reimagine their most essential municipal services, from public transportation to waste management, to housing and shelter, to emergency response, and more.

Applications for the 2025 Mayors Challenge are now closed, but we encourage you to follow along as we review applications, announce finalists in March 2025, and award winners in October 2025. Along the way, we will be sharing insights, strategies, and learnings from participating cities that you may be able to put to work in your municipality.

For the latest on the Mayors Challenge and government innovation happening in cities worldwide, sign-up for our Spark newsletter. City officials can also register for the Bloomberg Cities Idea Exchange, a first-of-its-kind initiative to spread promising and proven solutions from one city to others around the world.