[Call for Applications] China International College Students’ Innovation Competition 2024 (CICSIC)
China International College Students’ Innovation Competition (CICSIC), the largest global innovation competition in the world, has been actively promoting international exchanges and cooperation to establish a global competition platform that combines innovation with praxis for college students. From 2017 to 2023, more than 30,000 international projects and 90,000 international college students from over 150 countries and regions have participated in the competition. This year, we will organize the China International College Students’ Innovation Competition 2024 in Shanghai, and we cordially invite outstanding young entrepreneurs engaged in innovation and entrepreneurship worldwide to participate in this annual event, where participants strive to realize their career aspirations and build a better future for the world.
I. Entry Requirements
1. Projects should address social needs, create new products and business models, and promote the transformation of key industries such as manufacturing, agriculture, health, energy, and environmental protection. They should also facilitate the integration of digital technology with education, medical care, transport, finance, and cultural exchange. For further guidance, please contact the Chinese host university or the Competition’s overseas co-organizing partners on project specifics.
2. Projects must be ethical, legal, and free of any content that violates Chinese laws or regulations. All inventions, patented technologies, and resources involved must have the attendant legal intellectual property rights and proprietary rights. Entrants who submit plagiarized or pirated entries will be disqualified from the competition, forfeit any awards received, and shall bear all legal liabilities.
3. Entrants must choose the proper category for submitting their projects. The participating teams must truthfully fill out and submit entry materials in the registration system in a timely manner. Projects that have won the Gold or Silver Awards in previous sessions of this Competition are not eligible for submission.
4. E ntrants must be under 35 years old (born after March 1, 1989).
II. How to Participate
The Competition only accepts team entries. All entrants shall participate as teams of 2 to 15 members (team leader included). A team may be formed by members from more than one college. All entrants shall be core members of the team.
Entrants shall be students who are currently enrolled at a foreign institution or those who have graduated within the past 5 years (graduated after 2019, the same below). The application shall be submitted by the team leader. A team shall represent only one foreign institution in which the team leader is currently enrolled or has graduated from. In this case, a foreign institution refers to a higher education institution or vocational school that is located outside of the People’s Republic of China and is qualified to provide tertiary education and award degrees. A student enrolled at a foreign institution refers to a student who has registered and studied at a foreign college and is qualified to receive a degree or diploma.
All submissions will be classified into one of the following two categories depending on the entrants’ academic status: Undergraduate or Postgraduate. The submissions will be further classified into two sub-categories based on the projects’ business stage: Idea Stage and Startup Stage Projects. All participating colleges shall instruct entrants to correctly fill out the application and register in the appropriate category.
Requirements for each category are as follows:
1. Undergraduate
(1) Idea Stage Projects are projects that:
1. are creative;
2. have mature product prototypes or service models;
3. have not completed business registration or other types of registration on or before April 29, 2024.
The applicant must be the team leader, and the team leader and members must currently be undergraduates or junior college students.
(2) Startup Stage Projects are projects that have completed business registration or other types of registration (before April 29, 2024).
The applicant must be the team leader, the legal representative of the start-up and a current undergraduate or an undergraduate/junior college student who has graduated with an undergraduate degree within the past 5 years.
2. Postgraduate
(1) Idea Stage Projects are projects that:
1. are creative;
2. have mature product prototypes or service models;
3. have not completed business registration or other types of registration on or before April 29, 2024.
The applicant shall be the team leader, and the team leader must be a current postgraduate student. The other team members should currently be postgraduate students or undergraduate/junior college students.
(2) Startup Stage Projects are projects that have completed business registration or other types of registration (before April 29, 2024).
The applicant must be the team leader, the legal representative of the start-up and a current postgraduate student or a postgraduate student who has graduated within the past 5 years.
III. Competition Rules
International entries shall be evaluated alongside entries from Mainland China as well as Hong Kong, Macao, and Taiwan regions of China, but ranked separately. The Competition will be divided into the following three stages: review of eligibility, online evaluation, and on-site competition.
1. Review of eligibility (August 1-15, 2024) . The organizing committee will review the eligibility and integrity of the submitted materials from international entrants.
2. Online evaluation (August 16-31, 2024). Multiple rounds of online evaluation will be performed for the qualified entries. The last round will be the evaluation for the Competition finals.
3. On-site competition (October, 2024). E xceptional projects selected during the evaluation period will participate in the on-site finals. If participation in the on-site competition is not possible, the final evaluation and defense will be held in the form of an online road show.
IV. Awards
A total of 500 international entries shall be selected for evaluation in the finals, 150 of which shall be shortlisted for the on-site finals. From the shortlisted entries, 50 shall receive the Gold Award, while the remaining 100 projects shall receive the Silver Award. The 350 projects that fail to qualify for the on-site finals shall receive the Bronze Award.
The organizing committee will present the winners with award certificates. International entries that make it to the championship round will receive a cash reward which corresponds to their final award classification.
The organizing committee shall present mentors to teams being awarded the Gold Award with an Outstanding Innovation and Entrepreneurship Mentor Award (only given for the top 5 projects). Participating overseas co-organizing partners shall receive an International Project Organizing Award.
V. Registration
1. Entrants should register at https://www.pilcchina.org/ , the official website for the Promotion Association for Global Youth Innovation Leaders Community (PILC). Registration will commence at 0:00 on June 16, 2024 and conclude at 24:00 on July 31, 2024 (China Standard Time, UTC+8).
2. Entrants shall provide a business plan in PPT format and can also choose to provide the plan in Word format or as a 1-minute video as supplementary materials. Please convert your business plan into PDF format prior to uploading.
3. To facilitate the review, all team members shall submit proof of their academic status or diploma or shareholder status before the deadline. Teams with mentors shall also fill out the mentors’ information in the registration system.
4. In principle, all entry materials and on-site defense shall be in Chinese or English. For other languages, please contact the organizing committee.
VI. Judging Criteria
For detailed information on the Competition’s judging rules and criteria, please visit https://cy.ncss.cn or https://www.pilcchina.org/ .
VII. Miscellaneous
The organizing committee of the China International College Students’ Innovation Competition 2024 (CICSIC) reserves the right to make the final interpretation of all terms in this Appendix.
VIII. Contact Us
FAN Zhi
Promotion Association for the Global Youth Innovation Leadership Community (PILC)
Tel: 0086-13581973690
E-mail: info@pilcchina.org
Address: B28, Teli Aosen International Sports and Cultural Center, Chaoyang District, Beijing. Postcode: 100101, China.
QU Chen
Center for Student Services and Development, Ministry of Education of the People’s Republic of China
Tel: 0086-10-68352362
E-mail: jybdcw@chsi.com.cn
Address: Tower C3 Jinmao Building, No.18 Xizhimenwai Street, Xicheng District, Beijing. Postcode: 100044, China.
HUANG Kaifeng
Division of Global Cooperation and Exchange, Shanghai Jiao Tong University
Tel: 0086-21-34203724
E-mail: cicsic@sjtu.edu.cn
Address: No.800 Dongchuan Road, Minhang District, Shanghai. Postcode: 200240, China.
CAO Yuan
General Office, Department of Higher Education, Ministry of Education of the People’s Republic of China
Tel: 0086-10-66097814
E-mail: internetplus@moe.edu.cn
Address: No.37, Damucang Hutong, Xicheng District, Beijing. Postcode: 100816, China
