A global student tech-project competition. Students 18+ at school can take part, but check the age cut-off date.
Microsoft· Microsoft Imagine Cup
Mentorship and up to $5,000 in Azure credits for teams; World Championship prizes
The exact date for the new cycle has not been announced yet. This is last year's deadline
One-off
Cycle: 2027
The Microsoft Imagine Cup is a global student technology-project contest: teams of 1–4 get mentoring and up to $5,000 in Azure credits, and the best win prizes at the world final. You must study at a school or university and be over 18 on a set date: in the previous cycle it was 30 September and for 2027 the age cut-off date could not be confirmed in the sources found, so check the Official Rules 2027.
A jury assesses projects under the contest rules. The 8 January 2027 date in the record comes from third-party sources; check it on the official site. School pupils aged 18+ can take part.
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Where to go and what to do, step by step
Open imaginecup.microsoft.com and click Register now: create an account.
Check age and status: you must be 18+ on the date set in the 2027 Official Rules and enrolled at a school, college or university. Last year's rules set the age cut-off on 30 September, so confirm the date for your year.
Form a team of 1–4 students (each registers; members can be from different institutions and countries).
Choose a track: Launch (prototype or MVP) or Scale (startup with early users).
Build the prototype and submit by 8 January 2027 (confirm the date on your account page after registering).
Documents and materials to attach to the application.
Example (written by us): Ana and two friends build a grant-search app on Azure, record the demo video, describe the project and submit it before January; they check the age-cutoff date in the 2027 Official Rules.
An example we wrote to illustrate: it is not an official sample, replace the details with your own.
A jury judges projects under the contest's rules; a team of 1–4. The 2027 age-cutoff date could not be confirmed in the sources found: check the 2027 Official Rules.
Teams get mentoring and up to $5,000 in Azure credits; world-championship prizes. 8 January 2027 comes from third-party sources: check it on your account page after registering.
Guide checked against the official pages: 9 October 2026. Guide written from official sources. Details may change: check them on the application page.
A letter template and a checklist to review before sending. If a local model is running on your computer, the text reads more naturally.
“Open only to enrolled high-school or college/university students 18+. Participants must be at least 18 years old as of September 30, 2025.”
Experience from people who have already applied. These are user opinions and are not verified by the organiser.
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This information is for guidance only. Conditions change every year — check them on the provider's official website before applying.
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CERN, DESY y la Universidad de Bonn (ELSA)
A physics contest for students aged 16 and over: a team of 5 or more writes a proposal for an experiment on a particle beam and the best five run it at CERN, DESY or ELSA at the organisers' expense. In 2026 there were 712 proposals from 89 countries. The 2027 edition is not announced yet; the date in the database is a guide from 2026's (13 March).
Taking part is free. Five winning teams run their experiment in August at CERN, DESY or ELSA; the organisers cover the winners' full costs: travel, accommodation and three meals a day. Everyone with an eligible proposal gets a participation certificate