The event encourages emulation among European campuses, innovation on the part of students, and also the development of their relations with the world of work and entrepreneurship. It is in two parts: ideas, projects and start-ups are to be submitted by 22 April, followed by a giant competition day with innovative challenges on 10 May in the Grand Duchy for the finals.

It is possible to take part in individual aspects of the competition. The rewards are many – not only twenty awards and 50 000 euros in prizes and equipment, but also direct contact with employers, investors and partners.

Hundreds of projects submitted

The projects submitted are an invitation to freely reconsider some of the major challenges facing Europe in the 21st century: Business, Coding, Climate, Culture, Design, Engineering, Education, Fintech, Food, Gaming, Healthcare, Insurtech, Legal Matters, Logistics, Mobility, Procurement, Wealth Management, Space. All kinds of projects are accepted and their level of sophistication and advancement varies. The description of submitted projects must be in summary form, and fit onto ten slides.

Live challenges combining innovation, skills and experimentation

On the big day, the generic challenges in the morning (in plenary) are to be set by companies including Warner Bros, FC Barcelona, Dupont, Deloitte, NPG, Vodafone, Cargolux, ING, Lombard International, and Telindus, among many others. The afternoon’s challenges, calling for innovation and experiential skills, are to be selected from a number of key areas (business, IT, engineering, marketing, design). The best performers will also be rewarded.

Jury members with global status

The teams in the finals will be invited to pitch to an international multidisciplinary jury to determine the best European project overall. All the members of the jury are international personalities from various backgrounds, ranging from risk capital to the media sector, including academics and charity representatives, of the likes of Jean-Jacques Dordain, former Director General of the European Space Agency, Chanda Gonzales, Senior Director of Google Lunar XPrize, Taig Khris, three times world ramp skating champion and entrepreneur, Jelena Djokovic, National Director of the Novak Djokovic Foundation, Olivier Schaack, Creative Director at Canal +, Paul Helminger, Chairman of the Board of Luxair, Philippe Pouletty, a global top name in biotechnologies and co-founder of Truffle Capital, and Vaclav Smil, polymath and Bill Gates’ favourite author, of the University of Manitoba (Canada).

Participants from all kinds of backgrounds

The campuses represented include not only HEC Paris, Solvay Brussels, Technische Universität Berlin, International Space University, EU Business School Barcelona, Università Cattolica del Sacro Cuore (Milan), University of Luxembourg, Abertay University Dundee, Macromedia University of Applied Sciences (Munich), Swiss Federal Institute of Technology in Zurich (ETHZ), but also many other individual courses of different levels and specialisations. In 2015, the Warsaw School of Economics walked away with the Cup. The teams from Germany, the Netherlands, Greece, the Grand Duchy of Luxembourg and Switzerland presented brilliant projects. The best performers were French, Hungarian and Polish. Now it’s back to the starting blocks for the 2016 edition.