Youth Citizen Entrepreneurship Competition 2025

What is the CEC and How does it work? 

The Citizen Entrepreneurship Competition (CEC) aims to empower entrepreneurs – especially young ones – to work for a more peaceful and sustainable world. Participants are invited to submit their ideas with social impact and to make a concrete commitment to one or more of the 17 UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) and to implement them. The 17 goals for sustainable development address the most important social, economic, environmental and health challenges of our time. Entrepreneurs from 13 years old are invited to submit their idea or project to participate in the CEC.

The competition takes place in three phases. In the first phase, entrepreneurs submit their idea with a short pitch. If their idea meets the competition criteria, they are invited to complete the courses and work on their Entrepreneurial Design. For this purpose, we have developed a special Entrepreneurial Design Canvas (EDC). After completing the courses, participants can submit their completed EDC for phase 2. In this phase all ideas and projects will be published and the participants can vote and collect votes. The 10 submissions with the most votes will move on to the third phase, where an expert jury will select the winners. The winners will be announced at the CEC award ceremony, which takes place in an online ceremony.

Our Entrepreneurship Campus now has members from 141 nations. All participants are encouraged to discuss with each other – globally networked via the Internet – and to support each other with ideas. We have hosted the Citizen Entrepreneurship Competition annually since 2014. 

Timeline

May 12, 2025

Start of the Citizen Entrepreneurship Competition.

From now on you can submit your idea as a pitch in the dashboard under „My idea/project".

July 10, 2024

Last day for submissions. Last day to complete both the „Brains versus Capital” & „Sustainable Entrepreneurship” courses and the Entrepreneurial Design Canvas (EDC).

Please keep in mind that we may not have enough time to review your pitch and you may lack time to meet the CEC requirements.

July 11, 2025

Start of Voting Phase.

All ideas that have completed both courses and fully completed the EDC will automatically move into the Voting Phase and will be posted on our public website.

August 12, 2025

End of Voting Phase.

You still have the whole day to collect votes. At midnight the voting will be closed and it is no longer possible to vote. We will evaluate the collected votes and announce the finalists as soon as possible.

Note: Any form of manipulation or fraud during the voting phase will be strictly monitored. If invalid or fake votes are detected, they will be removed. In severe cases, the participant may be disqualified. Fair and transparent voting is essential for the competition!

August 2024

Evaluation and announcement.

The top 10 submissions with the most votes will advance to the finals, where they will be evaluated by our expert jury. The jury will award points based on key criteria such as entrepreneurial vision, feasibility, innovation, leadership, social impact, and sustainability. The winners will then be selected and announced on our blog.

• Tip: Images and videos (max. 3 minutes) are great ways to visually present your idea or project and increase your chances of getting votes. Make sure to use only media for which you have the rights.

Be part of the community even without submitting an idea!
You don’t need to submit an idea or project to be part of the Entrepreneurship Campus Community. Sign up, connect with like-minded people, exchange ideas, and provide valuable feedback on other submissions!