58 European universities of science and technology, united in the non-profit academic association CESAER,have opened a call for the international student competition CESAER Student Challenge 2023, which this year has the theme ‘Contribution of Universities of Science and Technology to Sustainability’. As the theme itself implies, the goal of the competition is to provide an opportunity for student innovative teams to demonstrate the real contribution of science and technology to sustainability and the Sustainable Development Goals.

The best team, at the end of the competition, will win a prize of 20 thousand euros!

Student teams are expected to present a brand-new idea that responds to local and global challenges sustainably. The application requirements are as follows:

• Tim mora biti The team must be led by a leader who is an undergraduate, master’s, or Ph.D. student of one of the member universities of CESAER (among the members is the University of Belgrade);
• There is no limit to the number of team members, and members of one team can be from one or different CESAER member universities;
• The idea should respond to well-identified scientific, technological, and social needs and goals;
• There must be a POC (Proof of Concept) about the technical feasibility of the solution itself;therefore, not only a scientific concept is sufficient, but also proof of its feasibility and application in practice, with a clear analysis of potential users/customers;
• There must be a clear correlation between the solution with one or more Sustainable Development Goals..

Applications should meet three main criteria, according to which they will be evaluated:

1. Novelty (a new approach to solving scientific and technological challenges; the solution corresponds to the real needs of the target groups; there is evidence of the possibility of application in practice);
2. Scientific and Technological Excellence (the solution is presented and explained in accordance with the most up-to-date requirements and references; the solution is feasible; the solution is the result of an interdisciplinary approach and work);
3. Impact and Sustainability (the solution is clearly correlated with one or more Sustainable Development Goals and contributes to environmental, economic, and social sustainability; the solution includes adequate preliminary indicators for assessing the impact and contribution to sustainable development; the solution analyzes and engages relevant target groups, i.e. users/ customers).

Given that only one team can participate in the competition in front of one CESAER member university, the University of Belgrade organizes an internal competition!
All interested student teams of the University of Belgrade can apply from May 10 to June 10, 2023, by sending a pitch deck to the email: ctt@rect.bg.ac.rs, with the indication ‘Application for CESAER competition’. An obligatory criterion within the internal competition is the analysis of the pitch deck in accordance with the three main competition criteria (novelty, scientific and technological excellence, impact and sustainability), and the presentation of solutions should clearly respond to all three criteria..

After the completion of internal applications, UB student teams will be invited to preparatory workshops, in which they will work on the quality preparation of materials for the final application to the CESAER competition.
The final application will include an abstract of the innovative idea and a short video showing the conceptual solution.
Preparatory workshops and consultations will be held (once a week) in the period from June 19 to July 17 at the University of Belgrade, after which one team will be selected to submit the final application no later than July 31, 2023..

From all applications, the three best videos will be selected and shown at the CESAER Annual Meeting at the Universidad Politécnica de Madrid in October 2023, and the leaders of the three selected teams will be able to join the event for free.
The winning team, as previously emphasized, will win a prize of 20,000 euros! In addition, the winning team will be provided with access to a platform that brings together experts and leaders from leading European science and technology universities, which can help them further develop an innovative solution.

Source: ctt.bg.ac.rs