Through a public-private collaboration agreement, THE ORGANISATION: The Diario Vasco, Mondragón Town Council, the Basque Government, the Supreme Council of Basque Cooperatives, Konfekoop, MONDRAGON Corporation, Gipuzkoa Provincial Council and the University of Mondragón present the third Mondragón City Challenge. This is an International Cooperative Entrepreneurship Competition aimed at secondary school students, vocational training courses and university students, to encourage cooperative entrepreneurial behaviour and introduce young people to the cooperative model by developing business projects based on a similar model.
PARTICIPANTS
Mondragon City Challenge is aimed at secondary school students, intermediate/higher education courses and university students from public, private or subsidised education centres all over the world.
Each centre may form as many groups as it wishes, each consisting of between 2 and a maximum of 4 members. In order to maintain a balance between the level of studies and age of the participants, the categories defined by the organisation are as follows:
- Category 16-18 years old
- Category 19-24 years old
IMPORTANT: The age of the participants should determine the category in which they will compete in the championship. If participants in the same team, by age, fall into different categories (despite being in the same academic year), the category into which the majority of the participants fall will be the one selected
Participation is open to anyone aged sixteen or who will have reached the age of sixteen during the current calendar year and to anyone who is under the age of twenty-four at the time of registration.
MONDRAGON CITY CHALLENGE
Participants in the third Mondragón City Challenge will be required to tackle the challenge of creating a business project from scratch by taking on one of the following challenges:
- Technological and Digital Challenge
- Digitisation, Artificial intelligence and big data, Technology at the service of citizens, Automation, Cybersecurity, Promotion of a fair and competitive digital economy, etc.
- Health and Social Challenge
- Health system, Pandemic risks, Demography and healthy ageing, Migration, Gender equality, New care models, etc.
- Energy and Climate Challenge
- Climate neutrality, Decarbonisation of the energy system, Efficient use of resources and energy, Sustainable smart mobility, Fair energy transition, "From farm to table", etc.
It will be an essential requirement that the project developed by the team is built on a cooperative management model. Finalists will defend their project in front of a professional jury at the event to be held on April 10, 2025 at the Amaia Theatre-Cinema in Arrasate-Mondragón.
TUTORS AND TRAINING
Tutors from the following organisations will be involved in the Mondragon City Challenge: ASEKOOP (Asesores Seniors Cooperativistas) and the Association of Friends of Arizmendiarrieta, who will support and assist the young people based on their extensive experience as former managers of various cooperative enterprises.. The organisation shall be responsible for assigning a tutor to each group once the 20 qualifying teams have been determined. The criteria for assigning them shall be based primarily on the “greatest experience” they can bring to the challenge chosen by each group.
Likewise, training shall be given throughout the process to broaden the range of tools available and enhance the quality of each project.
The organisation shall also make a number of guidelines available to participants via the document "Guidelines for the Cooperative Business Project" to assist them in developing the project, so that everyone is following the same guidelines.
JURY
The jury involved at different points of the process shall be made up of experts from the following entities:
- Technical jury: made up of the Leartibai Foundation and Saiolan, who shall be responsible for pre-selecting the projects as expert entities in promoting the creation of new businesses. They shall also be represented throughout the rest of the process.
- Professional jury: this shall determine the 20 qualifying teams and the winners of the competition, and shall be made up of
- Mondragón Town Council
- Basque Government
- Supreme Council of Basque Cooperatives
- Konfekoop
- MONDRAGON Corporation
- Gipuzkoa Provincial Council
- Mondragon Unibertsitatea (Mondragon University)
- International Cooperative Alliance
- Two representatives from the technical jury
DYNAMIC OF THE COMPETITION
The third Mondragón City Challenge shall take place in line with the proposed phases and dates set out below.
-
PHASE 0: REGISTRATION - IDEA FOR A BUSINESS PROJECT - Period covered: from September 9 to October 25, 2024.
During this period, students must access the www.mondragoncitychallenge.com platform to consult the legal terms and conditions of the Mondragón City Challenge. Any questions can be passed on to the organisation by filling in the "Contact" form. To complete the registration period, participating teams must register on the platform and duly fill in the "Technical description of the project" document which consists of the following sections:
- Name under which the team will compete
- Category in which the team will compete
- Details of the participants
- Name
- Surname(s)
- Age
- Place of residence
- Country of residence
- E-mail
- Mobile phone
- Educational study centre
- Name of the product or service offered by the team (maximum 3 words)
- Challenge to be tackled (Technological-Digital / Health-Social / Energy-Climate)
- Idea of the business project
- Brief description of the business project (in a maximum of 20 lines. The team must outline what the proposed project consists of in a maximum of 20 lines, and describe the differentiating factor compared to the competition, the type of cooperative to be set up, the contribution of the business to society and the most important issues to be addressed).
- Two open questions (maximum 1000 characters)
- If your project goes ahead, do you think it would be important for it to be based on a cooperative model? Please explain your answer.
- What advantage do you think your idea could bring to society?
IMPORTANT: Every team must send only one technical sheet (fill in only one form) setting out the idea for their business project. They can take part in any of the following languages: Spanish, Basque or English.
-
PHASE 1: SELECTING THE PROJECTS - Period covered: from October 29 to November 15, 2024.
During this period, the technical jury, made up of the Leartibai Foundation and Saiolan, shall select the 20 projects with the greatest potential for development from all the proposals received, based on their experience in the business field. The 20 projects that have qualified shall be notified by the organisation by e-mail to each of the participants (as shall those who have not qualified) on November 18, 2024. Furthermore, they will also be published on the www.mondragoncitychallenge.com website.
If one of the 20 teams that qualify declines to take part after being selected, the organisers shall consult the technical jury and consider including the teams that are immediately below them in the ranking.
PHASE 2: CREATING THE PROJECT - Period covered: from November 18, 2024 to February 17, 2025.
The 20 teams that have qualified shall have from November 18 to February 17 to develop the project that they have devised. All of the projects must answer the questions raised in the document on the website called "Guidelines for the Cooperative Business Project", which is made up of the following sections (with recommended dates for each subject in order to meet the deadline for the final work):
- Description of the business project: Period recommended: From November 18 to 28, 2024. Maximum length of the document: 1 page
- Analysis of the business project (market, competitors, target audience and environmental conditions): Period recommended: From November 29 to December 23, 2024.
Maximum length of the document: 5 pages
- Strategy and Product/Service Portfolio offered by the project and Action Plan (actions to launch the project and sustainability over time): Period recommended: From December 26, 2024 to January 20, 2025. Maximum length of the document: 4 pages.
- Costs and sources of income: Period recommended: From January 21 to February 17, 2025. Maximum length of the document: 2 pages.
The participating teams shall develop their projects over the above-mentioned period based on the milestones set by the organisation. Every team shall have the support of their tutor to monitor the whole process and resolve any questions or issues that may arise. February 17, 2025 shall be the last day for submitting “the dossier” of the project. The final document shall be sent via the Mondragon City Challenge platform (www.mondragoncitychallenge.com) and it must be submitted iin the format and under the terms and conditions set by the organisation:
- The final work shall be a minimum of 6 pages long and a maximum of 12 pages long, including appendices if required. DIN A4 sized paper.
- Plagiarism shall not be accepted.
- Text format: The "Times New Roman” font must be used. The size of the font used shall be 12 points. Handwritten work shall not be accepted. Lines of text must be separated by a space and a half (1.5 lines). The left and right margins must be three (3) cm and the top and bottom margins must be two and a half (2.5) cm. These margins must be respected throughout the document.
- ○ The work must be sent within the deadline set via the www.mondragoncitychallenge.com platform in PDF format as soon as the team has the final version (it must not be sent in sections). When the project is submitted, it shall be necessary to provide the team's name once again, together with a photo of the team members.
- Maximum date for submission: February 17, 2025.
PHASE 3: EVALUATION BY THE JURY - Period covered: from February 18 to March 5, 2025.
TThe professional jury shall evaluate each of the 20 projects and determine the 6 finalists, who shall defend their projects in the final event on April 10, 2025 (the teams with the highest scores shall be chosen). The projects shall be scored based on the criteria set out in the "Assessment" section.
On March 6, 2025, the organisation shall announce the 6 finalists to all parties involved in the process.
PHASE 4: PREPARING A DEFENCE FOR THE FINAL - Period covered: from March 6 to April 6, 2025.
The finalists must present their project in a dynamic and original presentation (PowerPoint, Prezi or any other medium they consider appropriate). A telematic defence shall only be accepted by the organisation in exceptional, justified cases. Each team shall have a maximum of 8 minutes to carry out the defence at the final event on April 10, 2025 (the organisation shall be very strict with the time set). Presentations must be submitted in advance to the organisation, with a deadline of April 4.
The defence may be made in Spanish, Basque or English.
The professional jury shall ask a number of questions related to the project concerned after each team's presentation.
-
PHASE 5: COOPERATIVE ITINERARIES AND ACTIVITIES - Period covered: from April 7 (for international teams) or April 8 (for Spanish teams) to April 10, 2025.
The 20 teams that qualified will enjoy a variety of activities and socialising to enrich the experience. The organisation shall be responsible for funding the travel and accommodation of the teams that qualify in the municipality of Mondragón to make the experience more enjoyable.
The participants shall get the chance to gain first-hand knowledge of the activity of a cooperative company and to learn about the specifics of democratic management governed by the principle of equality and equity among partners. Participants shall also receive advice from professionals in relation to their project.
IMPORTANT: Due to the slowness of the bureaucratic processes, the organisation strongly recommends to the international teams that in case they do not have their passport in order (or if the document expires before May 2025), it should be managed from the first moment they start their participation in the competition (regardless of whether the team is classified or not).
FINAL EVENT: DEFENCE OF THE PROJECT - Date held: April 10, 2025
Amaia Udal Antzokia (address of: Otalora Lizentziaduna Kalea, 6, Arrasate) is the venue chosen for the 6 finalists to present their proposals and thus close the third Mondragón City Challenge.
The professional jury shall ask a number of questions related to the project concerned at the end of each team's defence. The response capacity of the group shall be part of the evaluation of each project in the final (for more details see the "Assessment" section).
The event shall take place on April 10 and shall be attended by the 6 finalists accompanied by their classmates, the jury, the tutors, the mentoring companies, the 14 other teams that qualified in the first phase and the promoters of the competition. Other types of activities shall also be held to make the day more enjoyable.
REGISTRATION
The deadline for registering to take part in the second Mondragón City Challenge will be between September 9 and October 25, 2024 via the registration form on the www.mondragoncitychallenge.com website.
FORMALISATION OF PARTICIPATION
To formalise the participation of the 20 teams, they will need to have been previously selected by the Technical Jury and assigned a tutor and a mentoring company to support their participation.
MENTORING COMPANIES
The mentoring companies shall give the 20 qualified teams the opportunity to gain first-hand knowledge of how a cooperative company works and the challenges it faces. Participants shall also receive feedback about their project from professionals, thereby enhancing the educational content of the initiative.
ASSESSMENT
Selection of 20 teams. The technical jury shall rank those projects that it considers have the greatest potential to be developed based on their experience in the business field. Aspects such as the innovative nature of the activity, its potential for creating employment, the feasibility of the business, clarity of wording, coherence in terms of the cooperative management model, etc. will be assessed
Selection of 6 finalists. The professional jury shall grade the projects of the 20 teams that have qualified from 1 to 10 (the latter being the maximum mark), taking the following variables into account:
- The quality of the project (5%)
- Suitability for objectives (20%)
- Coherence with the cooperative management model chosen (10%)
- Possibility of realising the idea (10%)
- Originality (ability to surprise the jury) (5%)
*The percentages (%) indicate the relative importance of each variable on the final grade.
The 3 projects in each category with the highest score shall make up the 6 finalists.
Selecting the winners. In addition to assessing the above-mentioned variables, the professional jury shall score (once again from 1 to 10) other skills that shall be considered on April 10,2025 when the final defence takes place.
- Communication skills (20%)
- Material resources used (10%)
- Ability to answer the questions of the professional jury (20%)
The final score (the sum of all the variables considering their corresponding weighted scores) shall determine the winner of the third Mondragón City Challenge in each category.
Selecting a team for the "Originality Award". The "originality" factor will allow teams that did not reach the final to win a cash prize at the final event on April 10. The team that obtains the highest score for the above-mentioned variable shall be deemed to be the winner.
*In the event of a tie in any of the above cases, the jury shall take the scores for the other variables into consideration, always respecting the following order of priority until a winner is found:
- Suitability for objectives
- Possibility of realising the idea
- Coherence with the cooperative management model chosen
- Ability to answer the questions of the professional jury
- Material resources used
- Quality of the project
- Communication skills
- Originality
PRIZES
The 6 finalists in the third Mondragón City Challenge, 3 in the 16-18 category and the other 3 in the 19-24 category, shall compete for the following prizes:
- Winner of the 19-24 category: 7-day trip to Canada including flight and accommodation to be enjoyed after the competition before the end of the year 2025.
- Winner of the 16-18 category: 5-day trip to Paris including flight and accommodation to be enjoyed after the competition before the end of the year 2025.
*If the hotel booked does not have a catering service, the organisation shall provide the team with the equivalent amount to cover the corresponding daily subsistence allowance (breakfast + lunch or dinner).
The organisation shall also present an "Originality Award" to the most innovative project from the remaining 14 teams that qualified in the first phase. The €800 cash prize is intended to reward the efforts made throughout the process. The financial prize shall be subject to the current tax deduction.
SELECTING THE WINNERS
The winners shall be decided at the final event of the Mondragón City Challenge, which shall take place on April 10, 2025 at the Amaia Theatre-Cinema in Arrasate-Mondragón. The evaluation of both the technical jury and the professional jury shall determine the winners of the competition.
ISSUES NOT COVERED ABOVE
- In order for a team to remain in the competition, it is essential that the team attends phases 5 and 6 in Mondragón (from 7/8 April to 10 April 2025) as an indispensable part of the experience. Otherwise, the team shall be disqualified.
- All participants in the Mondragón City Challenge shall accept the jury's decision, and their decision shall be final.
- The organisation (including the mentoring companies) shall not have any intellectual or industrial property rights over the business projects, without prejudice to any agreements that may be entered into with the owners of the projects.
- The organisation reserves the right to publish, broadcast and disseminate by whatever means it deems appropriate the data, photos and images of the participants and prize winners, both immediately and subsequently in the future, by the means of communication and promotion it deems appropriate.
- The organisation reserves the right to amend any of the sections described above in these terms and conditions.
- Participation in this call implies acceptance of all of the provisions contained in these terms and conditions. Any unforeseen event not included in these terms and conditions may be resolved by the jury.
