The Sorenson Center for Discovery & Innovation at The University of Utah David Eccles School of Business, in partnership with MetLife and SocialWellth, today announced the MetLife – SocialWellth Games4Health Challenge. The event will be held on March 31 and will foster a cooperative ecosystem of hundreds of game developers, health experts, investors, donors, researchers and students from around the world to address health and wellness in innovative ways.

In addition to being the co-lead sponsor of the event, MetLife will also sponsor the Corporate Wellness Challenge, which is one of five sponsored challenges featured in the competition. MetLife’s 13th Annual U.S. Employee Benefit Trends Study shows health and wellness benefits may have a positive impact on employee engagement and commitment. Informed employees who understand their health and wellness benefits and receive effective communications around benefits can feel empowered to make decisions that best suit them, their families and their lifestyles. Students will design and create games that address fostering empowerment and education around health and wellness.

“As one of the world’s leading employee benefits providers, MetLife has a strong commitment to health and wellness. We spend a lot of time focusing on trends and issues impacting employee health and wellness, with the goal of helping our group benefits customers maintain healthy, productive workforces. Digital health tools and technologies are helping drive innovation in health and wellness,” said John Geyer, senior vice president and chief innovation officer at MetLife. “This is the second year we have been a sponsor of the Games4Health Challenge and have been impressed by the ideas and inventions students from around the world can share through this type of an event.”

Registration for the MetLife Corporate Wellness Challenge is now open, and will close on March 1, 2016. To register, visit: G4H.Eccles.Utah.edu.

Last year, 150 students from 10 universities and four countries participated in the Games4Health Challenge to win $50,000 in prize money.

“We hope to double the level of participation in 2016 and will be increasing the prize money to $60,000, making this the largest Games4Health Challenge in the world,” Wasden said.

“The University of Utah is the number-one ranked video development graduate school in the country, the number-17 graduate entrepreneurial program at the Eccles School, and is a top 10 medical school,” Wasden said. “The trifecta makes this the ideal place to sponsor this event.”