How to Participate

Cumulus Green calls on all Cumulus students to submit their best work to help us achieve solutions to serve SDG4.

Participation means a chance to be recognized by the international community with a prize or honorable mention, and see your work celebrated in a global digital showcase.

Cumulus Green 2026 has a prestigious global jury from academia and practice, comprising experts in various fields related to education, learning, and design for meaningful learning experiences.

 The competition is produced in a strategic partnership between Cumulus and The One Club for Creativity and leverages their award-winning submission and judging platform. The competition is administered by the Cumulus Secretariat with the support of the Cumulus Executive Board.

Submission Categories

Cumulus Green 2026 wants to encourage innovative solutions that relate to one or more of the following 3 categories:

Products

Projects that illustrate how artifacts (products, communications, interactions, etc.) can support meaningful learning experiences and embody the principles of accessible, inclusive, and quality education.

Services

Projects that utilize design research and strategy to showcase integrated, multi-component approaches that address educational challenges at scale. Systems may explore learning ecosystems, policy frameworks, institutional networks, or models that improve how knowledge is accessed, shared, and sustained across diverse communities.

Systems

Projects that organize and enhance the quality of human educational experiences. These may focus on learners, teachers, families, institutions, communities, or technologies that support learning. Services can aim to improve accessibility, engagement, support structures, collaboration, and overall learning outcomes.

Entry Expectations

The jury will be looking to reward submissions that represent the best work according to the following criteria:

Desirable, viable and feasible design(s)
Evidence of a rigorous research process of the design solution proposed
Innovative/Novel solutions

Participation Eligibility

The competition is open to students from Cumulus member institutions in all disciplines in art, design and media who are pursuing either a Bachelor level or Master level program.

Students who are currently enrolled in Cumulus member institutions or students who have graduated in 2025-2026 and/or are graduating in 2026–2027 are eligible to participate.

There is no limitation in the number of submissions per institution, and there is no cost to submit.

Entries must be composed of original work; individuals and/or teams must hold the Intellectual Property for their submissions and have the right to enter and publish the submitted work. The use of generative artificial intelligence is permitted under certain conditions and with the uploading of the AI Use Declaration form. Review competition criteria for guidelines here.

Apart from the contact and school information, we expect to receive the following:

1. Short project description in English (No more than 140 characters)

2. Overview About Your Solution in English (500 words or less)

3. Please give the jury a brief idea about your entry solution

Questions you may consider to include:
What opportunity was the project addressing?
Who were you designing for?
What was your research process?
What was the intended impact?

4. Project Images (At least one (1) and maximum of five (5))
Upload images that best illustrate your project and, if possible, the process and intended impact of your work. Project Images must be either JPEG, GIF or PNG formats. The maximum image dimension is 3000 pixels tall or wide and the maximum individual file size is 15MB.

5. Project Video (Optional)
Tell us the story behind your project in no more than 2 minutes;
How you approach, it is up to you!

Length: 2 minutes or less
Maximun size: 200M
Video ratio: 16:9
Resolution: Full HD 1920×1080
Format: mp4

6. AI Use Declaration
Please upload your AI Use Declaration using the provided form, outlining how artificial intelligence was used in the development of your project.

Awards and Exhibition

Cumulus Green 2026 invites the next generation of committed designers at Cumulus member institutions to be recognized by all Cumulus members on a global stage. The competition will reward the top entries with three categories of prizes, as well as honorable mentions.

Please note that the three prize categories of winning submissions will not necessarily correspond to the 3 formats invited (products, services, and systems). This means that the Cumulus Green 2026 jury will evaluate entries first and foremost based on the criteria outlined (see entry expectations section) and select winners amongst the strongest projects.

Winning submissions will be unveiled to coincide with the Cumulus conference in Glasgow on June 08-11, 2027. Winners will be notified by the end of April 2027 and included in a global press release that Cumulus will be disseminating widely. Students whose work is selected by the jury will gain many opportunities to see their designs showcased to a global audience through the Cumulus network and social media channels. The winners will be invited to join the award ceremony in June and are subject to one’s own travel arrangements.