SUNECO participant behind award-winning innovation – 5th place in national innovation competition in South Africa
Charne Verster, a student at the University of Cape Town and participant in SUNECO's student exchange Co-creating Sustainable Entrepreneurial University Ecosystems, is behind Smart School Shoes – a social innovation that recently secured her and her team 5th place in South Africa's largest national student innovation competition.
The Smart School Shoes project addresses a key societal challenge in South Africa: millions of children walk long distances to school, often without suitable footwear, while families have limited resources to constantly buy new shoes as their children grow. The solution is the world’s first school shoe that can grow up to three sizes, designed to be durable, comfortable and affordable. The shoe combines an adjustable fit with an ergonomic design, reflective details and an integrated tracking function for increased safety.
For this innovation, Verster and her UCT Genesis team received R50 000 after achieving 5th place in the EDHE Absa Innovation Challenge, South Africa’s largest student innovation competition, with participation from all 26 public universities in the country.
Highlights SUNECO as a central learning arena
In connection with the award, Verster highlights SUNECO as an important and lasting part of her entrepreneurial development. She describes SUNECO as an example of how international cooperation in higher education can be organized as equal partnerships, where students from the South are not only recipients, but active co-designers of solutions:
“SUNECO is a meaningful example of how structured learning mobility can position African students as co-designers, rather than recipients, of innovation developed in the North. Collaboration across borders weakens no one – it strengthens us all.”
She further points to the value of northern infrastructures and southern, contextual insights meeting at eye level:
“When these meet, both parties are left with capacities they could not develop alone. True partnerships create faster, deeper and more lasting progress when we build together, not in parallel.”
From student exchange to societal impact
SUNECO works to strengthen entrepreneurial university ecosystems through student mobility, co-creation and mutual learning. The story of Smart School Shoes illustrates how this approach can help student projects develop into concrete, scalable solutions with clear societal benefits.
The goal of Smart School Shoes is to become a new standard for school footwear in South Africa, where one adjustable shoe can replace several traditional pairs – while at the same time contributing to increased dignity, security and schooling for children, regardless of social background. The case is also covered by Entrepreneurship Development in Higher Education (EDHE).