Un grupo de estudiantes trabajando por sus propósitos en el Challenge Universitario de Open Room

University Challenge Fundación Repsol

1st Edition of the Repsol Foundation University Challenge

The first edition of the Repsol Foundation University Challenge on Energy Transition took place in 2024 and was aimed at undergraduate, master's, and doctoral students from all over Spain.

A total of 1,700 students from 84 universities took part in this challenge, working in teams to present more than 380 proposals for solutions to the five challenges set out in the call for entries: decarbonised cities; electric mobility; circular economy; decarbonised industry; and energy transition and society. After the selection process, 93 students organised into 25 teams were chosen to compete for one of the five prizes in the grand final held in Madrid. The finalists shared a weekend hackathon working on their projects until they were almost ready to become business realities and defending them before a jury of professionals and experts from Repsol. The five winning teams, one per category, received a €12,000 prize and the opportunity for their members to develop a training scholarship at Repsol.

Arantza Hernanz, Director of Knowledge and Education at the Repsol Foundation

“It is very important to move forward with the energy transition and to do so in an orderly and intelligent manner, maintaining the competitiveness of our industry and productive sectors. That is why we believe it is essential to draw on university talent, and we organised this Challenge so that students could contribute their ideas to solving the puzzle of the transition to a decarbonised economy.”

The grand final in Madrid

A 48-hour event in which the finalists worked on and defended their proposals before a jury of experts. The five winners each receive a prize of €12,000 and the chance to apply for a training grant at Repsol.

Watch the entire Gala

More than 1,700 students submitted their ideas to the University Challenge, although fewer than 100 made it to the final.

The winners represent a wide variety of profiles for companies associated with the energy transition, such as chemical engineers, telecommunications engineers, biologists, biotechnologists, computer scientists, journalists and economists. The winning projects propose solutions such as, among others, applying wave energy to decarbonise maritime transport or recycling wind turbines from wind farms.