Application Guidelines

Students Reinventing Cities is C40 Cities' global competition seeking innovative, tangible designs that help build a green and just urban future. The fourth Students Reinventing Cities competition launched in October 2024 and will run until July 2025. 

The competition creates a space to:

• drive collaboration between youth and city governments to accelerate low-carbon urban redevelopment.

• support the development of globally replicable and innovative urban design solutions.

• strengthen knowledge and understanding of leading climate policies, solutions and technologies. 

HOW IT WORKS

• Participating world-leading cities select urban areas urgently seeking redevelopment. These sites are open to students and young people across the world to redevelop, presenting creative and innovative solutions that address city climate targets, resident priorities and local challenges.

• Interested participants select a site/city to develop a proposal for. Participants then form teams and develop a comprehensive action plan for the site.

• Projects should seek to transform urban areas into green and thriving neighbourhoods, integrating the “15-Minute City” model & proximity approach for low-carbon urbanisation.

PARTICIPATION ELIGIBILITY 

• Current university students of any age, any degree level, and any discipline can participate, provided they are enrolled in the 2024-2025 (or 2025) academic year.
  

• Any young person who is not a current student can also participate, provided they are aged 18-28.

• Teams must comprise at least one current university student. “University(ies)” refers to research institutions, schools, colleges and the entire academic community in higher education, above the high school level.

• Teams must be composed of at least two people. There is no limit to the maximum number of people that can be in a team.
  

• The competition encourages participants to develop mixed-discipline teams, drawing on knowledge from a wide range of studies. Teams may include participants from multiple departments such as architecture, urbanism, environment, engineering, real estate development, sociology, economy, and the arts, among other fields.

•  Any eligible participant is welcome to apply, regardless of their city of residence. Participants do not need to be from or reside in, the city they have chosen for the competition.

TIMELINE

• 29 October 2024 | Competition launch

• 20 March 2025* | Deadline to register your team*

• 29 May 2025*| Deadline to submit your project* 

• June 2025 | Juries comprised of C40 and city experts will assess all projects

• July 2025 | Announcement of winning projects & city-specific prizes

*Timeline may vary for certain cities. Please refer to each city's site page to verify the timeline. 

PARTICIPATING CITIES & SITES TO CHOOSE FROM 

• The fourth Students Reinventing Cities competition has launched in 11 cities worldwide -  Amman, Barcelona, Freetown, Istanbul, Jakarta, Johannesburg, Lisbon, Milan-Segrate, Quito, Rome and Tshwane. Please consult the Sites in Competition for information about the selected sites and development expectations. 
• For each city in competition, a Site Form is provided. The city prepares this document to present the site and detail the objectives of the project. The Site Form may provide further information regarding submission requirements such as language requirements as well as potential additional awards given by the city.
•  An online folder (“Dataroom”) will also be available containing more relevant documentation [maps, images, regulations] related to the site. 

SCORING CRITERIA
For each site, all submitted projects will be judged based on the following criteria:

• Quality of the team and their approach to developing the project.
• Quality of design and relevance of the project 
• Proposed solutions aligned with the Green & Thriving Neighbourhoods Guidance
• Feasibility of the project.

For each site, the final projects are evaluated (anonymously) by a jury composed of representatives from the city, C40 and external experts. The composition of the juries will be made public. 

One winner will be chosen per city/site; some projects may be awarded a special mention. Please refer to the Competition Regulations for a more detailed breakdown of the scoring criteria.

WINNING PRIZES 

For each city/site, the winning team will receive:

• An official Certificate signed by the Mayor of the city and the Executive Director of C40.
• Coverage in local and global communication campaigns (social media, press releases, Reinventing Cities website).
• Additional awards may be given at each city's discretion. Further information regarding additional awards can be found within the city-specific Site Form. 

Got a question that this page hasn't answered? Check out our FAQ page for more information.