We live in an era in which humanity’s capabilities—and our challenges—are progressing faster than most of us can comprehend. As we confront the major issues of our century, we’ve never had better tools at our disposal, or a more pressing need to use them wisely. Yet most efforts to create positive change remain locked in ‘silos of excellence’: public health experts talk (mostly) to other public health experts; designers talk to other designers; technologists talk to other technologists, and so on. This approach slows the spread of innovation from field to field, limits our awareness of what tools are even available, and throttles the pace of change.

PopTech takes a different approach. We bring innovators together from many different fields—science, technology, design, corporate and civic leadership, public health, social and ecological innovation, and the arts and humanities, among others—in a network that complements the silos.

We convene this community in intimate, peer-level gatherings where participants can share their most provocative questions and their most promising new ideas, and begin to work together on new approaches to some of the world’s toughest challenges. In so doing, we constantly seek out the ‘genius in the white spaces,’—insights that can only be discovered when people from very diverse disciplines come together, and concepts from one field are ‘mashed up’ with those from another.

The PopTech Social Innovation Fellows program is designed to equip world-changing innovators with the tools, insights, visibility and social network that can help them scale their impacts to new heights. Each year, PopTech selects 10 to 12 high potential change agents from around the world who are working on highly disruptive innovations in areas like energy, livelihood, healthcare, environment, performing arts, education, and civic engagement, among many others. Fellows work in both the for-profit and not-for-profit worlds, have a positive track record as leaders in social innovation, and are working in organizations that are well positioned for sustainable growth.

2014 Social Innovation Fellow nominations are now being accepted via the online nomination form. Please review the eligibility criteria included in the 2014 Call for Nominations when considering making a nomination. Nominations will be open through April 1, 2014. For more information on the program, check out this page. You can even take a look at the class of 2013 to learn more about their projects.