Bold ideas,
built by students.
GQC is an international student innovation award programme — staged each year across Hong Kong, London and New York — where teams aged 14–22 take a single question from research to working pitch, judged by a global panel from industry, academia and venture.
Hong Kong · London · New York
Each city hosts its own regional showcase and feeds top teams into a combined Global Final. Teams apply to the edition closest to them; the strongest projects travel.
One question.
Six months.
A real pitch.
Teams of 2–5 students aged 14–22 register for one of four award tracks. Applications open in March and close in late May. A 500-word problem brief plus a short video is all we ask for at the entry stage — no polished pitch decks required.
Shortlisted teams join the GQC Learning Experience — a programme of weekly research clinics, written feedback from working professionals, and live masterclasses from academics and founders. The deliverable is a 20-page evidence pack and a 6-minute pitch.
Regional showcases run in Hong Kong, London and New York. Teams present in front of city juries drawn from industry, academia and venture capital, with a written critique returned to every team — including those who don’t reach the final.
City winners and wildcards advance to the GQC Global Final. The winning team in each category receives a seed grant, a year of post-programme mentorship, and an invitation to the Invitational Track for the following cycle.
Four ways
to enter.
For teams using software, machine learning, data or hardware to solve a defined real-world problem. Past winners have built triage tools for under-resourced clinics and energy-mix models for school districts.
For teams whose intervention is a message, a campaign or a service design. Judges look for clarity of insight, originality of execution and measurable behaviour change.
A curated cohort of 24 teams nominated by partner schools, alumni and former finalists. Invitational teams skip the open round and present directly to a senior jury at the Global Final.
The championship round held the week after the New York edition. Twenty-four teams compete for the Founder’s Prize, Research Prize, Impact Prize and the GQC Medal.
- Problem clarity
- How sharply the team frames the problem, the people affected and the unmet need.
- Research & evidence
- Quality of primary research, depth of secondary sources and honesty about limitations.
- Solution & feasibility
- How well the proposed intervention follows from the evidence and whether it could actually be built.
- Impact pathway
- A plausible route from prototype to meaningful change, including ethics and second-order effects.
- Communication
- Clarity of writing, evidence pack and live pitch — including how the team handles questions.
Universities, industry, civic.
Field, questions,
and a certificate you can check.
How GQC sits beside Regeneron ISEF 2026 (9–15 May, Phoenix Convention Center), the Conrad Challenge, Diamond Challenge, Odyssey of the Mind, Future Problem Solving, FIRST Robotics and Genius Olympiad. We are not an ISEF affiliate.
Age, mixed school-university teams, fees, travel bursaries, language, certificates, and whether you can reuse a science-fair project. If it is not there, inquiry@gqc.org.
Paste a verification URL or certificate ID. Keep the v= checksum. Employers and universities should use this page, not a screenshot. Explainer: Certificate.html.
GQC 2026 is for students aged 14–22 who want to take one question from research to a working pitch, with written critique, in Hong Kong, London or New York. Applications open 2 March and close 22 May. The Learning Experience runs mid-June to the end of August. City showcases follow in September, October and November; the Global Final is 5–6 December in New York. The programme is venture-building plus a learning experience — not a science-fair qualifier, not a robotics league, not an olympiad pathway.
Start with who can enter, pick a track, and read how juries score. Teachers nominating Invitational teams should use the partner desk. Anyone holding a GQC document should verify it before filing it with a university.