Run with universities,
industry & civic.
GQC’s three editions are made possible by a small group of long-term partners — host universities, civic bodies, founding industry sponsors and the agencies that fund the prize pool. Every partner sits on at least one of the GQC councils.
Three hosts, one academic council.
Co-founded GQC in 2019. Hosts the Hong Kong jury days and provides the Asia chapter of the academic council.
Runs the London edition’s prototype labs. Provides faculty for the Digital & AI methods clinics.
Hosts the New York edition and the GQC Global Final. Chairs the Americas chapter of the academic council.
Civic, cultural, and academic.
Co-convenes the cross-edition exchange and funds bursaries for teams from low- and middle-income countries.
Provides studio space and engineering mentors for the Hong Kong Digital & AI cohort.
Hosts the London opening symposium and public exhibit floor.
Hosts the GQC Medal ceremony in New York.
Studio space, fabrication and prototype mentors for the New York Digital & AI cohort.
Offers a five-year RSA student fellowship to two GQC Medal winners each cycle.
Who funds the prizes.
Funds the Founder’s Prize seed grant and provides accelerator placements for shortlisted Digital & AI teams.
Underwrites the campaign labs and contributes the Brand & Communication track jury chair.
Provides editorial coverage of the Hong Kong edition and an interview slot with each city winner.
Underwrites the Research Prize and offers two writing residencies for medal winners.
Funds the Impact Prize and places winners with portfolio companies as paid research fellows.
Provides pro-bono legal advice on intellectual property to GQC finalist teams for twelve months.
Rooms, mentors, bursaries — not logo wallpaper.
Academic hosts (HKUST, Imperial Enterprise Lab, NYU Stern Berkley Center) provide clinic space, faculty programme leads and the public rooms listed on the Events calendar. Civic partners underwrite bursaries and open exhibit days. Industry benches supply prototype reviewers and a share of the jury pool. None of these roles includes the right to alter a score or to require a team to use a product.
The 2026 partner calendar follows the cycle: nomination workshops in March–April, mentor briefing in June, city weeks in September–November, a partners’ breakfast at the Global Final. Schools that wish to nominate Invitational teams, or firms that wish to fund a named prize, should start at Become a Partner rather than by approaching a juror.
We list organisations that have a current, contracted role. We do not list hoped-for partners, and we do not claim ISEF, Conrad, FIRST or other landscape programmes as ours. If a logo is not on this page, it is not a GQC partner for 2026.