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.