Competitions and awards are a fantastic way to connect with potential employers, showcase your innovative ideas, and show that you’re a dynamic, standout individual! If you’re looking to kickstart a groundbreaking business idea, land funding for an incredible internship, or win a cash prize, these opportunities are your chance to shine and set yourself apart from the crowd.
Below, you’ll find a diverse list of challenges and awards—make sure to check the details for specific dates and deadlines, as they will vary. Most are annual competitions, so if you see one you’re interested in and you’ve missed a deadline for this year, register an interest for the next one!
Awards
- Edge Hill Careers awards – Our very own annual recognition awards for students, alumni, volunteer organisations and employers – check our website regularly for updates on plans for this year
- Edge Hill Scholarships – Our scholarships celebrate determination, commitment and achievement in a variety of areas, from rewarding academic excellence to celebrating success outside of your studies, overcoming adversity, and inspiring others.
- Target Jobs: Are you the next undergraduate of the Year? – Multiple categories available – each award is partnered by a leading graduate recruiter who provides a fantastic prize for the winner, including a paid internship, trips abroad and other exclusive opportunities
Competitions: explore platforms listing a variety of challenges
- Agorize – List of challenges – This platform lists multiple student problem-solving challenges, competitions, start-ups and hackathons that you could get involved in.
- Search for Student Competitions | RateMyPlacement – Regularly features a variety of competitions offered by UK companies.
Pitch/business idea start-up competitions
The Pitch – Sponsored by Sage. Independent pitching competition that helps start-ups pitch to industry experts and investors. The top 10 start-ups go on to compete on the national stage and win the chance to be mentored by leading entrepreneurs.
Hult Prize Foundation – Each year 50,000 students from all over the world compete for the chance to win $1 million in seed funding to launch their social enterprise.
Stephen Lloyd Awards site – For innovations addressing social issues- open to early stage projects that could bring about practical, sustainable social change.
iGEM Startups – Want to learn the basics of bioentrepreneurship? Whether you are a team or individual this could be the challenge for you! iGEM Startups helps upcoming BioFounders to create high impact startups, solving the world’s most pressing problems.
Commercial and problem-solving challenges
Accuracy Business Cup – Accuracy – The Accuracy Business Cup, or ABC, is an international student competition giving you the opportunity to work on financial and strategic business cases. During the competition, you will work under the supervision of Accuracy consultants and present your recommendations to the leaders of a major listed company
YES site – An innovative global competition developed to raise awareness of how ideas can be commercialised among Masters and PhD students, postdoctoral researchers, research fellows and technicians.
TCS Sustainathon 2024 | UK&I – This is a problem-solving challenge for university students across the UK and Ireland focusing on sustainability innovation to solve real-life problems.
L’Oréal Brandstorm – Annual innovation competition open to all 18 to 30 year olds.
Tech and science competitions
Huawei Agorize – A “Server Fleet Management At Scale” competition, where your innovative solutions can drive the next wave of technology. Must be studying engineering, mathematics, computer science, or other related fields
Immersive Design Challenge – Siemens and Sony – a worldwide student challenge to imagine sustainable design with immersive engineering
UK Cyber Strategy Challenge – A university annual cyber policy and strategy competition. Students from across the globe compete in developing policy recommendations tackling a fictional cyber catastrophe. It’s not just about tech but strategic skills, policy analysis etc. Teams practice public speaking, understanding policies, competition.
Global Game Jam – The GGJ is the world’s largest game creation event taking place around the globe boasting tens of thousands of participants (jammers) at hundreds of physical and virtual sites in over one hundred countries around the world.
BCSWomen Lovelace Colloquium: – The BCS Women Lovelace Colloquium – the national conference for undergrad and MSc women in computing features poster contests.
Village Software | Data Quest Round Up – Data mining competition for students
iGEM Competition – Join the world’s biggest synthetic biology competition! Push the boundaries of synthetic biology by tackling everyday issues facing the world. Work together with your team to build and test a system of your own design using interchangeable biological parts.
English and creative arts awards
EHU Dame Janet Suzeman Playwriting prize – An opportunity for Department of English and Creative Arts students to write an original script for stage
The Edge Hill Short Story Prize – Awarded annually by Edge Hill University for excellence in a published single authored short story collection.
Canon Stories in Motion 2025 – Aimed at UK residents aged 18-25 – young content creators, film makers and cinematographers – make a music video, documentary or short film
BAFTA YUGO Student Awards – Universities submit their best work for review
RTS Student Television Awards 2025 | Royal Television Society – An annual event with several categories.
Law-related competitions
Bar Council Law Reform essay comp – Aimed at developing and fostering an interest in law reform. Students and pupils are invited to submit essays making the case to reform English, Welsh and European law.
BIUAC – British and Irish University Commercial Awareness Competition for students at non-Russell group universities
Supreme Court – An essay competition aimed at university students, aspiring lawyers, pupils and trainees with UK-based firms or chambers
Andrew Lockley Public Law Essay Competition – For aspiring Public Law and Human Rights (PLHR) solicitors