Who can enter,
and how it works.
GQC is built for students who want to do original work and have it taken seriously. Read the rules below before you start an application — most of what people get wrong is here.
The four rules.
- Age
- Every team member must be aged between 14 and 22 on the day applications open (1 March 2026).
- Enrolment
- All members must be currently enrolled in secondary school or in an undergraduate programme. Recent graduates within twelve months of completion are eligible.
- Team size
- Teams of two to five students. Solo entries are not accepted in the open round but are admissible in the Invitational Track on a case-by-case basis.
- Originality
- Work must be the team’s own and produced for GQC during the 2026 cycle. Projects previously submitted to other competitions are allowed if substantially extended; teams must declare this in the entry form.
Six months from open call to Global Final.
What we ask for.
The first-stage application is deliberately short. We are looking for clear thinking, not slick presentation. You will need:
- A 500-word problem brief — the problem you want to work on, who is affected, and why you are the right team to look at it.
- A 90-second video introducing the team. Phone footage is fine; rehearsed studio video is not required.
- Team details: school or university, year of study, country of residence, age on 1 March 2026.
- One short reference from a teacher, lecturer or programme leader who can vouch for the team.
Shortlisted teams are notified by 12 June and then enter the Learning Experience, where the deliverables expand: an evidence pack, a working prototype or campaign artefact, and a six-minute pitch. The Judging Criteria explain how each deliverable is weighted.
No team is priced out.
The standard registration fee is £30 per team to cover platform costs. The fee is waived in full for any school or university listed on the UK’s POLAR4 quintile-one register, on the US Pell-eligible list, or for any team applying from a country on the World Bank low- or lower-middle-income list. Teams in any other situation can request a fee waiver in the application form; we do not ask why.
Travel and accommodation for shortlisted teams attending a regional showcase are funded directly by GQC and our city hosts. Teams reaching the Global Final receive a fully-covered travel bursary to New York.
A brief that a stranger can argue with.
The 500-word problem brief is the part of the application juries read twice. A strong brief names a specific setting (a clinic shift, a lunch period, a high-street block), a specific person who is failed by the current options, and a reason this team is close enough to the problem to learn something in eleven weeks. It does not open with a market-size paragraph. It does not claim the team has already “solved” anything. It says what you have already tried — even if that is one interview and a messy notebook.
Examples of work types that fit the open round: a scheduling tool for a real after-school programme whose staff have agreed to test it; a campaign aimed at one behaviour in one school, with a plan to measure it; a hardware prototype that a named user can handle in a jury room. Examples that rarely survive shortlisting: a slogan about “empowering youth globally”; an app mock-up with no user and no data; a literature review with no primary contact; a pitch to “disrupt education” without a school that will let you in the door.
Process, in order: form a team of two to five; pick the city you can actually travel to; choose Digital & AI or Brand & Communication (Invitational is by nomination only); write the brief; film a 90-second introduction on a phone; collect one teacher reference; submit before 22 May 23:59 BST. If you want a read on the brief first, Early-Stage Feedback is open for the same window and does not affect shortlisting. Mixed school-and-university teams are allowed. Solo open-round entries are not. Recent graduates are eligible for twelve months after completion.
Inline questions we receive every March: Can a 14-year-old lead? Yes. Can a parent be on the team? No. Can we add a sixth member in July? No — the registered names are the team. Can we change city after shortlist? Only for documented visa or medical reasons, and only if the receiving city still has capacity. Full edge cases live in the FAQ and the Terms.