Rules

1. Eligibility

Every team must include at least one student enrolled at a Portuguese higher education institution, in a Bachelor's, Master's or Doctoral programme (or equivalent, as long as it is degree-granting). In individual applications, the applicant must be that student.

Enrolment must remain valid until the end of the 2026/2027 academic year. Teams may include lecturers, researchers, alumni or external professionals, and each person may only be part of one project in this edition.

2. Application

Entry is free, and each team or individual applicant may submit a single project, which must be original. Participants guarantee that they hold all rights to the project and that it does not infringe intellectual property rights, contracts or third-party rights.

When applying, you must provide a valid certificate of enrolment, as a PDF with a digital mobile signature, and declare all funding already received. Teams that have accepted equity funding (venture capital, business angels, convertible notes, SAFEs or other dilutive instruments) are not eligible, nor are teams that have received non-dilutive external funding above €100,000.

The pitch, the pitch deck, the Idea Pitch Framework and all other materials must be in English, and pitches are held in person only.

3. Phases and calendar

• Applications open: 29 October 2026.
• Applications close at 23:59 on 6 December 2026.
• Projects selected to present to the jury are contacted by 21 December 2026.
• Semi-Final: March 2027.
• Grand Final: April 2027.
• Trip of the winning project to MIT, in Boston: May 2027.

4. Assessment

Assessment has two components: the Idea Assessment (submitted materials), worth 75%, and the Pitch Assessment (presentation to the jury), worth 25%. Each juror scores independently, from 0 to 5 points (decimals allowed), and the final score is the average of the jurors' assessments.

The Idea Assessment weighs:

• Scientific and/or technological basis of the idea: 20%
• Degree of innovation: 20%
• Potential impact on society: 15%
• Maturity of the idea and potential for application: 15%
• Feasibility of the project's development plan: 15%
• Suitability of the team's profile and skills: 15%

Previous participation as a semi-finalist, finalist or winner in a Portuguese business-idea competition (held in 2025, 2026 or up to 6 December 2026) is a positive factor.

5. Prizes

The project ranked 1st pitches its idea at the international MIT $100K competition in Boston (USA) as an invited project. This participation does not entitle it to compete for the international competition's monetary prizes, which are reserved for MIT students. The organisation covers travel and accommodation costs, on terms to be defined by the Organising Committee.

Monetary prizes are also awarded to the three best projects:

• 1st place: €5,000
• 2nd place: €3,000
• 3rd place: €2,000

Each team has a main promoter, by default the first team member registered on the application form, who is responsible for receiving the prize and issuing the required tax documentation (a one-off invoice or equivalent document). FCT scholarship holders may be legally unable to issue it, which rules out the monetary prize. Prizes are personal and non-transferable.

6. Other provisions

The jury may disqualify applications that breach the rules, including failure to attend pitches in person or to use English. Decisions of the jury and the Organising Committee are final and cannot be appealed.

Jury members and the organisation keep applications confidential. Intellectual property rights over the ideas belong to their promoters, and participants authorise images to be captured at the sessions to promote the competition.

Personal data is processed by the University of Coimbra (Student Hub) in accordance with the GDPR and destroyed within 3 years after the 2027 edition. For questions and to exercise your rights, write to general@mit100kportugal.com.

The rules were last reviewed and approved on 22 October 2026. The full text is available in the PDF.