The challenge is open to all participants and teams that are in compliance with the specific rules listed below. The competition organizers reserve the right to disqualify any team that violates the rules, regulations or the spirit of the competition. For special circumstances, eligibility is subject to individual review.
Members Eligibility:
- All undergraduate and graduate level students from any accredited university, college or other educational institution born after March 4th, 1979 and before March 4th, 1992 are eligible to enter.
- Proof of enrollment will be requested of all semi-finalists.
- Competition void where prohibited by law.
Teams Eligibility:
- The team must be comprised of students currently attending a university, college or educational institution. Students who graduated in September 2009 are eligible to enter.
- Teams may consist of 2 to 4 members per team.
- All team members are considered with equal share, if qualified, are all to be invited to the Finals in Bled, Slovenia.
- Team members do not have to be affiliated with the same school.
- The competition is open to an unlimited number of teams per university, school or youth organization.
1.
Register and fill out your profile. Registration opens on September 24th, 2009 at 9.00 AM CEST.
2.
Browse through challenges themes and select the ones you like.
3.
Join or create a team:
a.
You can only be in one team per challenge theme.
b.
You can tag yourself as interested so that other teams can invite you to join them.
c.
You can create a team yourself and invite other members from your school, youth organization, or anyone worldwide to join you.
d.
You can invite mentor from the mentor lists to help you with your idea.
e.
All teams must be completed until November 18th, 2009. A complete team has to have a minimum of 2 and a maximum of 4 members. No changes to the teams is allowed after November 18th, 2009.
f.
All registered participants who do not belong to any team by November 18th, 2009 have a chance to contribute to the community through feedback and voting – and get rewarded with ‘sparks.’ Earn the largest number of sparks – and you get to go to Finals with all expenses paid!
4.
When in a team, fill out the team profile, collaborate in project rooms, select mentor and be prepared that on ...
5.
... on November 21st, 2009 the challenges are announced - and you receive more info on specific challenge into your project room.
6.
Start with developing ideas! The team creator can submit your idea via the submission form. Attention: the community will only see your idea's Title and Abstract and vote upon them; so be as creative as possible in abstract!
7.
When idea is submitted, the community can post comments and, if you wish, you can revise your idea upon the received comments until the voting starts. In other words, you have time between 5 p.m. CEST of November 21st, 2009 and 5 pm CEST of December 10th, 2009 to submit, revise, and re-submit your final idea. You can mark the comments as helpful – that means that the one that gave you the helpful comment gains additional sparks.
8.
On December 10th, 2009 the voting starts: you can vote for ideas in other challenges, check your votes (thumbs up/down) and enjoy reading the comments.
9.
By being an active community judge, you can also gain lots of extra sparks.
10.
On January 11th, 2010 the semi-finalists are announced, representing the selection of top 10 community picks, top 10 judges picks and 60 top ranked team across all challenges (excluding already selected teams by community and judges).
11.
On January 12th 18th, 2010 the semi-finalists can start working on corporate challenges, receiving all details about the corporate challenges.
12.
The number of teams for specific corporate challenge is up to 30. A corporate challenger might invite specific teams to work for their challenge. The team can accept or reject the invitation.
13.
After submitting solution and max. 3-minute-video on February 7th 15th, 2010, the community starts voting again and judges and businesses select their own finalists.
14.
On March 4th 12th, 2010 3 finalist winners per challenge are announced to go to the Final head-to-head competition taking place in Bled, Slovenia.
15.
On March 5th 15h, 2010 the final voting starts and ends on April 15th, 2010.
16.
You make it to the Finals – then see you in Bled from 16th till 20th of April 2010!
17.
On April 20th, 2010 the WINNER is announced!
1.
Register any time starting September 24th, 2009 at 9.00 AM CEST.
2.
Learn about six challenge themes and create your competition team any time between 9 am CEST of September 24th, 2009 and 5 pm CEST of November 18th, 2009.
3.
Learn about six Round One competition challenges as they are announced at 5 pm CEST of November 21st, 2009.
4.
Submit your IDEA any time between 5 pm CEST of November 21st, 2009 and 5 pm CEST of December 10th, 2009.
5.
VOTE for your favorite idea! Community voting on all ideas is open for you between 5 pm CEST of December 10th, 2009 and 5 pm CEST of January 4th, 2010.
6.
Discover who made the Semi-Finals on January 11th, 2010 at 5 pm CEST.
1.
Learn about new semi-final challenges as they are announced at 8 pm CEST of January 12th 18th, 2010.
2.
Submit your SOLUTION and a max. 3-minute video till 5 pm CEST of February 7th 15th, 2010.
3.
VOTE for your favorite idea! Community voting on all solutions and videos is open for you between 5 pm CEST of February 8th 16th, 2010 and 5 pm CEST of February 28th March 3rd, 2010.
4.
Discover who made the Finals on March 3rd 12th, 2010 at 5 pm CEST.
5.
Discover who made it as winner of the largest number of the sparks on March 3rd 12th, 2010 at 5 pm CEST.
1.
VOTE! Make your voice heard as we choose the best of the best across all challenges! Community voting on the Winner Team starts at 5 pm CEST on March 4th 15th, 2010 and finishes at 5 pm CEST on April 15th, 2010.
2.
Live Finals take place in Bled, Slovenia from April 16th, 2010 to April 20th, 2010.
3.
The Winner Team is announced on April 20th, 2010.
Challenge:Future competition has three rounds:
1.
First Round - IDEATION (starts on Sept 2009 and ends on January 4th, 2009)
The First Round invites you to develop breakthrough ideas that respond to six challenge themes. With the 2009-2010 Challenge: Future Theme being the Future of Connecting, our six challenge themes include communications, transportation, media, youth in society, health, and prosperity. Learn more about our six challenge themes by returning to the home page, while the details of each challenge will be announced on November 21st, 2009.
2.
SEMI-FINALS: CORPORATE CHALLENGES (starts on 11 Jan 2010 18 Jan 2010 and ends on 28 Feb 2010 3 Mar 2010)
Semi-Finals invite you to propose solutions to the challenges posted by our corporate partners. The details of corporate challenges will be announced on January 12th 18th, 2010.
3.
FINALS: GLOBAL CHALLENGE (starts on April 16th, 2010 and ends on April 20th, 2010)
The finals are head-to-head competition and will take place in Bled, Slovenia, with global challenge details announced during the event.
After ideas of the first round are submitted by December 10th 2009, the community and appointed judges will select semi-finalists. The initial pool of teams will be narrowed down to 180 semifinalist teams that will get the chance to work on the corporate challenges and to qualify for the final round.
You can be selected as a semi-finalist in one of three ways:
1.
PUBLIC: 10 teams per challenge (or 60 in total) that receive the highest amount of public support will proceed to the semi-finals.
2.
JUDGES: 10 more teams per challenges (or 60 in total) that receive the strongest judges’ support will proceed to the semi-finals.
3.
BEST OVERALL: as we highly value equal opportunities, quality and creativity, up to 60 additional teams will be qualified for semi-finals according to their total rank among all contestant team (regardless in which challenge did they compete).
So there are many opportunities to be selected. No worries if you will not be the most popular on the website, if your idea is good, you can still rely on the competition judges of a fair grade. And if your idea is not the best within your challenge, but is much better than all of ideas in another challenge, you might still get a chance to progress as best team in the overall standings.
If less then 50 teams apply for a challenge, then the selection for semi finals is as follows:
1.
PUBLIC: 5 teams per challenge that receive the highest amount of public support will proceed to the semi-finals.
2.
JUDGES: 5 more teams per challenges that receive the strongest judges’ support will proceed to the semi-finals.
3.
BEST OVERALL: as we highly value equal opportunities, quality and creativity, up to 20 additional teams will be qualified for semi-finals according to their total rank among all contestant team (regardless in which challenge did they compete).
The Community will be allowed to vote on the ideas from December 10th, 2009 (5:00 PM CEST) until January 4th, 2010 (5:00PM CEST). Semi finalist will be announced on January 11th, 2010 at 5:00 PM CEST.
PUBLIC: All registered users of the community votes on the principle thumbs up or down and can see only the abstracts of the solutions. If you are competing, you cannot vote for other solutions in your challenge(s). You can invite friends to vote for you.
JUDGES: the judges will use the following criteria for evaluating your solutions in the First Round:
1.
ORIGINALITY OF THE IDEA ...does it have the “wow” effect, is it breakthrough and unique or is it completely inadequate and ordinary...
2.
POSITIVE IMPACT ON FUTURE ...is it problem solving, with value proposition, does it have far reaching positive impact or no potential for the future whatsoever...
3.
THE IDEA RELEVANCE ...can it be believed, is it useful, does it reflect the annual theme and the specific challenge...
4.
SUSTAINABILITY ...does the idea meet the needs of global sustainability and allows for harmony between prosperity, ecology, and society; does it have significant improvement of sustainability...
5.
TEAM ASSESSMENT ...team skills, communications, analytical approach, vision, goal orientation, does the team have outstanding competences or is it low on skills...
The final three teams per challenge will be selected among semi-finalists by community, competition judges and business experts. They all will grade each solution from 1-10 and the weighted average grade per solution will be calculated. The three teams with the highest score per challenge will be selected.
The Community will be allowed to vote on the SOLUTIONS from February 8th, 2010 (5:00 PM CET) until February 28th, 2010 (5:00 PM CET). Finalist will be announced on March 4th 12th, 2010 (5:00 PM CET). Once the three finalist teams per each challenge are announced, the community still has a voice in selecting a winner - as you can vote for your very favorite solution in each challenge from March 4th 15th, 2010 (5:00 PM CET) until April 15th, 2010.
Challenge:Future is committed to ensuring that your privacy is protected. Should we ask you to provide certain information by which you can be identified when using this web site, you can be assured that it will only be used in accordance with our Privacy Policy.
We are committed to ensuring that your information provided is secure. In order to prevent unauthorized access or disclosure we have put in place suitable physical, electronic and managerial procedures to safeguard and secure the information we collect online.
The confidentiality and intellectual property rights are described in terms and conditions.
Members of the final teams will be awarded with fully covered travel and living costs to attend the Finals in Bled, Slovenia from April 16th to April 20th, 2010.
One team with the most ingenious ideas and solutions for sustainable future will win The Grand Challenge:Future Award of 20.000 EUR (which is approximately 28.000 USD!).
The mentor of the winning team gets a 3.000 EUR award!
The total Challenge:Future fund prize is more than 100.000 EUR (or approximately 140.000 USD!).
The most proactive and contributing member of the Challenge:Future community – the winner of the largest number of the sparks - will also get free ticket (all costs covered) to come to the Finals and to enjoy in Bled, Slovenia from April 16th to 20th, 2010.
