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The RISE Awards - Real Impact on the Society and the Environment
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What is the RISE Awards?
The RISE Awards is a competition and international showcase of student achievement in sustainability and social innovation, designed to accelerate the scale and impact of student-led projects by connecting them with a network of experts in academia and industry.

The competition is organised by the international network Universitas21 (U21) and the local round of the competition is organised by External Relations together with LU Innovation.
How Does it Work?
If you are working on a project that is more than just an idea you can participate in the competition. If you are unsure if your project is elegibile or not, you can take a look at the image below.

After signing up, we will select up to 10 finalists that will get to pitch their project live at the finale in Lund on May 15th.  To participate your project needs to have a link to one or several of the United Nations sustainability goals.

At the finale, the finalists pitch their projects and a jury selects two winners that will represent Lund University in the international round of the compeititon (digital). The pitches at the finale will be recorded and submitted to the international round.
Who Can Participate?
All students at Lund University with a project related to the United Nations Sustainability goals can participate.

You can participate as an individual or as a group. If you are a group larger than 7 people you have to choose a core group to present your project. Note that it is enough that at least one person in the group is a student.

If you have started your project during your university studies at Lund University and have recently less than 2 years ago you can also participate.
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Timeline and Competition Format
The competition consists of two phases: the local competition here in Lund and the digital international round of the competition. After submitting registering for the competition we will choose a number of finalists (max 10) that will get to pitch live at the finale in Lund in the end of April. The pitches will be recorded and a jury will select two winners. The winners pitches will be submitted to the international round of the competition.

Competition open for registration: 10 March - 7 April 2025.

Notifying students that will move on to the finale: 14 April 2025.

Live finale in Lund: 15 May 2025.

The winners of the international round will be announced: June 2025
Why Participate?
All finalists of the local round in Lund will receive a diploma and a LinkedIn recommendation.

For the projects submitted to the international round, U21 will ensure that each project will receive international exposure, working to attract pledges of support for the different projects from U21’s global partners in industry and academia.

The four winning teams of the international round will recieve $2000 (USD) to continue to develop their projects.
Judging Criteria
•The issue: Why is this initiative needed? Which of the UN Sustainable Development Goals are being addressed?

•The idea: How well does this initiative respond to the outlined issue? How original is the idea?

•The impact: What measurable difference has this project already had on the lives of the target population or on the natural environment?

•The potential: How scaleable is this initiative? What is the future business plan and how
would the project team make use of future investment?
Previous Participants
Take a look at previous participants in the RISE Awards!
Register here!